By: VINCENT MENDOZA / STAFF WRITER
On January 30, the NBA announced that Warriors Guard Stephen Curry will go head to head with Liberty Guard Sabrina Ionescu in a three-point contest at this year’s NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis. The competition will take place after the Starry Three-Point contest and before the AT&T Slam Dunk contest at 8:00 pm EST on Saturday, February 17, airing on TNT.
The rules of the contest are as follows: Ionescu will shoot from the WNBA three-point line with WNBA-sized balls, while Curry will shoot from the NBA three-point line with NBA-sized balls.
Each player will shoot five balls per rack from five spots on the court: left-corner, left-wing, top of the key, right-wing and right-corner. Four racks of balls will feature four regular balls worth one point and the fifth ball from each of the four racks will contain a “money ball” worth two points. The fifth rack will contain five money balls and both players will get to choose where they place it. There will also be two Starry three-point balls worth three points each.
The NBA three-point line is 23 feet and 9 inches from the basket at the top of the key and 22 feet from the corners. The WNBA three-point line is slightly closer, measuring 22 feet and 1.75 inches from the basket at the top of the key and 21.75 feet from the corners. Although there is a difference in distance, it isn’t enough to create an unfair advantage for Sabrina.
The main reason why the contest is so hyped up is that both participants are the best shooters in their respective leagues.
Widely regarded as the greatest shooter ever, Curry currently holds the record for most three-pointers in NBA history with just over 3,600, roughly 650 more than runner-up Ray Allen. Impressively, he is shooting 42.6% from beyond the arc, which is third best on the top 50 list, only behind Kyle Korver and Steve Nash.
Meanwhile, Ionescu is known as the best shooter in the WNBA due to her holding the single-season record for most three-pointers made with 128 in the 2023 season. She achieved this at the tail-end of the season, passing the 2009 MVP and 3-time WNBA Champ Diana Taurasi’s record set in 2006.
Another reason why this competition has drawn interest from fans is because both participants have won the three-point contest before. Curry is a two-time three-point contest winner, taking home trophies in 2015 and 2021. Ionescu won it in 2023, doing so in historical fashion. She made 37 out of 40 threes in the final round of the contest. This single-round event record is not only for the WNBA but for the NBA as well.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the contest is that the proceeds will go to Curry’s Eat.Learn.Play nonprofit and Ionescu’s SI20 foundation. Over the past six NBA All-Star Weekends, charity has played a significant role in the competitiveness of the games and events. The players aren’t just competing for fun and pride. They are competing to have an impact on changing the lives of hundreds of children.
Although this competition comes with comparisons and debates, Ionescu stated: “There's no rivalry because I think it's just a cool opportunity to be able to do that on that stage and obviously continues to push the needle for what women's basketball has been able to accomplish.”
Over the past few years, women’s basketball has taken the sports world by storm. This past year, the NCAA Women’s Final Four and the 2023 WNBA Finals both reached historical levels of viewership.
The two NCAA tournament semifinal games averaged 4.5 million viewers, up 66% from last season’s Final Four games.
On the professional level, Game Four of the 2023 WNBA Finals averaged 889,000 viewers and peaked at 1.3 million, making it the most-watched Game Four in WNBA history. Along with that, the WNBA Finals experienced a 36% increase from 2022.
Women’s basketball is experiencing exponential growth and on one of the biggest stages during NBA All-Star weekend, Ionescu has a chance to showcase how good women’s basketball players truly are.