Friday night's newly-formatted Rising Stars Challenge for the 2022 NBA All-Star weekend was a smashing success. The four participating teams were very competitive throughout the mini-tournament and it produced some pretty good basketball.

It was Team Barry that ultimately won the title for the inaugural tournament, but there's no denying that Orlando Magic stud Cole Anthony was one of the players that stood out on the evening. It wasn't just for his strong play during the game, but also, the 21-year-old went viral for a rather NSFW act in a crucial moment of the opening contest between Anthony's Team Worthy and Team Isiah.

As Desmond Bane was taking what turned out to be the game-winning free-throw, Cole Anthony decided to literally drop his shorts in an effort to distract the Grizzlies guard. He has now spoken out about the incident and apparently, he believes he did nothing wrong (h/t NBA on TNT on Twitter):

Anthony's excuse was that he was stretching. And that he slipped. And that he was just making sure his jersey was tucked in. One of those will work, right? Cole even had the full backing of Hall of Fame big man Shaquille O'Neal who offered to be his legal counsel here.

It's great to see Cole Anthony smiling here as opposed to the usually intense persona he usually exudes. After all, it's the NBA All-Star weekend and everyone is clearly having a ton of fun.