Three-point shot was 'worst thing to happen to basketball,' former columnist says

Legendary sports columnist Bob Ryan talks the advent of 3-pointers in basketball on OutKick's "The Ricky Cobb Show."

Not everyone likes the three-point line in the NBA.

Certainly not former columnist for The Boston Globe, Bob Ryan, who expressed his displeasure with the three-point shot during a recent appearance on OutKick’s "The Ricky Cobb Show."

"For me, the three-point shot is the single worst thing to happen to basketball in my lifetime. And let’s back up for a little history. The ABA did not introduce the three-point shot. The ABA absorbed the three-point shot. The three-point shot, as we know, it was a gimmick of a promotor," Ryan said. "It was the gimmick of a promotor, that man being Abe Sacks, the impresario of the Harlem Globetrotters who founded a league in 1961 called the American Basketball League he hoped would be an opposition to the NBA.

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Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors shoots a three point basket during the game against the LA Clippers on October 27, 2024 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California.  (Jed Jacobsohn/NBAE via Getty Images)

"That league lasted a year and a half; it folded in the second year, but he had a three-point shot because he needed a gimmick. The Eastern League, which was a league I was quite familiar with, having grown up in Trenton, New Jersey, and we had a franchise. I was a big fan of the Eastern League, (they) adopted the three-point shot. And when the ABA came into being in 1966, clearly it needed gimmicks, and they had of them: the three-point shot and the red, white and blue basketball. But just keep in mind that is the derivation of the three-point shot."

The NBA introduced the three-point line during the