NBA All-Star weekend will feature at least one former Tiger after David Jones-Garcia was named to the Rising Stars game over the weekend. Jones-Garcia will participate on Team Austin, which is made up of all G-League players.
The former Tiger will play alongside other former American Conference players Alijah Martin, who played at FAU before transferring to Florida, and Tristan Newton, who played at ECU before transferring to UConn.
Jones-Garcia transferred into Memphis ahead of the 2023-24 season and became the leading scorer on a 22-win team. The guard finished his lone year averaging 21.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 45.9 percent from the field and 38 percent from three-point range.
Following the season, Jones-Garcia elected to forgo his final year of eligibility to enter the 2024 NBA Draft, but he went undrafted. After the draft, Jones-Garcia signed a two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, but he was waived in September before the season started.
Jones-Garcia started his professional career in the G-League with the Mexico City Capitanes, and after just a few games with the Capitanes, the former Tiger signed another two-way contract with the Utah Jazz. Jones-Garcia was cut again after spending time with the Salt Lake City Stars, the Jazz’s G-League affiliate, and returned to Mexico City to finish the season.
The guard joined the San Antonio Spurs summer league team for the 2025 NBA Summer League and earned All-Summer League first team honors after averaging 21.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while shooting 52.9 percent from three-point range in summer league. The Spurs later signed Jones-Garcia to a two-way contract.
This season, Jones-Garcia has appeared in 11 games with the Spurs, and he’s averaging 2.9 points and 1.2 rebounds in 6.2 minutes per game. Most of his games this season have been in the G-League, where he’s averaging 27.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the Austin Spurs.
Jones-Garcia will represent the G-League in a mini-tournament against three other teams made up of rookies and sophomores in the NBA. The G-League roster was selected by the league office.
The rising stars tournament will take place at 8 p.m. CT on Friday, Feb. 13 at the Intuit Dome. In the two semifinal games, the winner will be determined by the first team to reach or surpass 40 points, while the championship game will be the first team to reach or surpass 25 points.