“When you play a sport — especially a sport like basketball — there’s a lot that’s about consistency and persistence. At the end of the day, the result is what you put into your training.”
40 years ago, three-pointers were virtually non-existent in the NBA. Teams then attempted fewer than five three-pointers per game. The reason for this was simple: why throw from a distance when there’s a much better chance of scoring two points from a much shorter distance?
But how did this drastic change come about? Let’s take a look together at the compelling history of basketball’s revolutionary three-pointer:
01
The birth of the three-point line
Before the three-point line was introduced, most points were scored near the basket, and the offense focused on easy layups or hook shots (or hook throws). That doesn’t mean that attacks used to be worse or less effective — quite the opposite is true!
The NBA’s eight-best seasons by score came more than five years before the three-pointer was introduced. That’s because the NBA offenses were incredibly fast. The superstars of the teams back then were either the point guard or the shooting guard, who also set the pace. Most points were scored either at the fast break or at the start of the shot clock.
At the collegiate level, the three-pointer was first tested in a 1945 game between Columbia and Fordham. Then-Columbia graduate student Howard Hobson had studied basketball for 13 years, and he thought long-distance throws were more exciting. So he wanted to find a way to make long-distance shots more viable while reducing the advantage of taller players near the basket. The line was drawn 21 feet from the basket and Columbia won the historic match by a score of 73-58.
Lethal Shooter
© Koury Angelo
The three-pointer was tested twice more at the collegiate level thereafter, once in 1958 and once in 1961, before the American Basketball League adopted the three-pointer as its premier league in 1961.
After the Continental Basketball Association (then Eastern Professional Basketball League) adopted the throw two years later, the American Basketball Association (ABA) adopted the three-point rule in their first season in 1967-68. Along with the slam dunk, the ABA used the three-pointer as a marketing gimmick, presenting itself as a more entertaining league over the NBA.
Facing waning popularity, the NBA adopted the ABA in 1976, but did not introduce the three-point line on a league-wide trial for a year until the 1979-80 season (which also saw Magic Johnson and Larry Bird play their first games). The distance was exactly 23 feet and 9 inches at the top and 22 feet at the corners.
Many expected a fundamental change in the way the NBA played with the introduction of the three-pointer. Frankling Mieuli, then owner of the Golden State Warriors, called the rule change “immoral” and expected the NBA to meet a similar fate to the ABA. He felt the throw would negatively affect the team aspect of the game.
The great change that so many were anticipating didn’t materialize, at least for the time being. In the inaugural 1979-80 season, teams in the NBA averaged fewer than three goals per game from the three-point line.
At the start of the 1994-95 season, the NBA faced a problem: teams weren’t scoring as many points as they used to. The league-wide point average was at a 35-year low.
Unlike the fast-paced, fast-paced offenses of the ’70s and early ’80s, when teams averaged more than 100 possessions per game, teams began to play a slower, more deliberate offensive style.
In the 1990s, when the Bulls were celebrating three straight titles while averaging fewer than 95 possessions per game, other teams tried to copy this concept. The focus was now increasingly placed on more efficient moves.
To address the lack of points, the NBA shortened its three-point line from 23 feet and 9 inches to an even 22 feet.
The effect quickly became apparent: the teams now tried their luck more often from the three-point line and in the 1994/95 season there were several records: number of goals from the three-point line, number of attempts and hit rate. However, this did not solve the low scores problem as teams continued to play slowly. The point level dropped even further, and was the lowest it had been since the 1950s. Prior to the 1997-98 season, the NBA moved the three-point line back to its original position, and it took another whopping 20 years for batting to return to the levels of the ’70s and ’80s.
03
The three pointer today
The Streets 3-Point-Challenge bei den Red Bull Half Court National Finals
© Lukáš Wagneter / Red Bull Content Pool
Today the three-point value is higher than ever before.
Teams are throwing twice as many three-pointers today as they did 10 years ago and nearly three times as many as 20 years ago. The coaches rely on offensive variants of the game with good shooters who move outside the three-pointer line, so that their big boys and more athletic players have more space to score near the basket.
But even the bigger players are increasingly trying to play from the line of three these days.
In the 2011/12 season, Andrea Bargnani was the only center to score at least 100 points from the three-point line.
Ten years later, in the 20212/22 season, 24 players did so in this position, including Joel Embiid, Karl Anthony-Towns and MVP Nikola Jokic.
Dusan Bulut at the Red Bull Half Court World Final in Cairo, Egypt
© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool
When the three-point line was first introduced, many expected it to revolutionize the game immediately. Instead, it took about 40 years before the three-point system actually lived up to this expectation and a new era in basketball was heralded.
“Like anything you want to do in your career that you want to constantly improve on, it takes a lot of work,” says Davis. “If you want to be one of the best players in the NBA, you have to invest an incredible amount. It’s hard to understand if you don’t play in the NBA.”
