Loved, loathed and everywhere: How the three-pointer came to dominate the NBA

When the shot went up, so did the voice of ABC’s legendary broadcaster, Mike Breen. “Curry! Way downtown! BANG!” It all happened so fast. It was a regular season game in Oklahoma City on 27 February 2016. The Golden State Warriors were on a magical run that would see them break the single-season wins record, going 73-9, pre-playoffs. That year, Stephen Curry earned his second-straight MVP, unanimously. He achieved that feat because he’d turned the three-pointer into a weapon unlike anyone else in history.

The game-winner against the Thunder on that February night marked the beginning of a new chapter in the NBA. Not only did it clinch another win for the Warriors, but it cemented the three-pointer as a play en vogue in the NBA. A season later, after the Thunder’s Kevin Durant defected from the team and joined Golden State, he hit an unprecedented, walk-up three-pointer over LeBron James to all but clinch the 2017 NBA finals. Durant later told GQ, “That was the best moment I ever had.” The modern game was unfolding before our eyes.

But how exactly did we get here?

Dr James Naismith invented the game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts on an otherwise gloomy day in December 1891. From then on, for most of basketball’s history, the game has been dominated by big men, those 7ft giants, who, by virtue of their size, are closer to the 10ft rim and, thus, more capable of scoring with relative ease. From George Mikan in the 40s, to Wilt Chamberlain in the 60s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 70s, Moses Malone in the 80s and Shaquille O’Neal in the 90s, and beyond, big men largely ruled the roost. But now, though, thanks to players like the 6ft 2in Curry, the game’s focus has moved away from the hoop towards the three-point