Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driver Conor Daly will represent the NTT IndyCar Series in tonight’s NBA All-Star Celebrity game in his hometown of Indianapolis.
The lifelong basketball fan is part of the team led by NFL Hall of Fame member and media personality Shannon Sharpe, whose squad will go up against fellow broadcaster and personality Stephen A. Smith.
Listed at 5’9” and 150 pounds, look for the Hoosier somewhere out on the wing — well clear of the block — firing long-range shots.
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“It’s actually funny; my mom just sent me a photograph of a very early school autobiography that I wrote for myself, and I could barely write, so this must have been when I was very young, and my autobiography had me being an NBA player,” Daly told RACER. “There was nothing about racing. I’ve loved basketball since I was a kid, played basketball in middle school, played it a little bit as I got into the older years of school, but obviously once I was racing, that was the sole focus. But anytime there’s a basketball around, I will shoot it at a hoop.
“So I love the sport, but I’m not tall enough to play the sport. I am in no way a skilled basketball player, but I can shoot around a little bit. I can work on a few things. And this was something that I just pursued myself. Out of a pure curiosity, I thought that the All-Star game is in Indianapolis, and it is probably the only chance in my entire life and in my existence that this would be even a possibility. And the [Indiana] Pacers helped out a little bit and they submitted some names for the celebrity game and I was chosen out of the list of names that they submitted to the NBA.”
Daly’s part of a team that features two stars of the NFL in Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, Seattle Storm WNBA guard Jewell Loyd, fellow gamer Kai Cenat, and a number of actors and singers.
“I believe we were supposed to have Peyton Manning as our coach as well, but I think he’s pulled out for some reason,” Daly said. “And then I believe 50 Cent is also supposed to be a coach of ours. And then honestly, I am not entirely too familiar with 80% of the team members that I’ve got. I know Micah Parsons is on my team, obviously a star for the Cowboys. After practicing with him last night… he is a big man. He is a big fella and yeah, pretty happy to have him on the team.
“And I know Kai Cenat is a streamer on Twitch and obviously I’m a Twitch streamer, so I’ve known of him. But other than that, I don’t really know many people I was playing with until I met several of them last night at practice. Very intense environment. It was not as joyful as I was expecting it to be, or as kind. It was very competitive. So that’s good. We’re all competitors but I also hope that we can all have fun doing this as well.”
Daly was headed to the Pacers’ arena in the hope of learning more about his NBA-adjacent debut, which airs tonight on ESPN starting at 7pm ET.
“There’s a lot of unknowns; I don’t even have a credential yet, so I’m just going to show up and I’m going to go and play some basketball hopefully they have shoes for me,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t even know my jersey number, but I did put in for No. 24, my Indy 500 car number.”