A look at Curry’s ascension to the three-point mountaintop

4 years ago - Sportingbase

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry hit his 2,974th three to surpass Ray Allen on the all-time three-point field goals list in his team’s 105-96 win over New York on Wednesday. Early in the first-quarter, a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd rose in unison to applaud one of basketball’s greatest ever showman: the scrawny sniper out of Davidson.

Curry’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric.

The son of former sharpshooter Dell Curry, Steph dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps and making his mark Virginia Tech. However, he was only offered a walk-on spot by the Hokies’ staff, a decision which they would quickly come to regret. Instead, a teenage Curry opted to attend Davidson College, a private liberal arts school in the southwestern region of North Carolina. In just three seasons, Curry became the school’s most prolific ever scorer en route to declaring for the 2009 NBA Draft, where he was passed on six times before winding up with Golden State.

Curry’s showed clear promise throughout his early years in the league but fought off continuous ankle and foot injuries that many feared he would ultimately succumb to. In the 2012-13 season, Curry hit 272 threes to break Ray Allen’s record of 269 for most three-point makes in a single season. Two seasons later, he broke his own record. The season after that, he broke it again. This time, by a measly 116 threes. Curry hit 400 threes in a season before any other player had hit 300. He is now in possession of four of the top five highest-volume three-point shooting seasons in NBA history. When Curry entered the league, no player had ever hit 270 threes in a single season. He has now done it six times. He is one six players in NBA history with multiple games of hitting double-digit threes. Zach LaVine has done it twice, J.R. Smith, Damian Lillard, and James Harden have done it three times, and Curry’s teammate Klay Thompson has done it an astounding five times. Curry has done it 22 times.

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A piece listing every single one of Curry’s unbelievable shooting feats would read like a novel but, as Curry steals the spotlight yet again, it seems appropriate to reminisce on those he has passed and those who may one day chase him.

Ray Allen

Former Buck, SuperSonic, Celtic and Heat Ray Allen is no longer in possession of the NBA’s three-point crown, however, it would be remiss of fans to gloss over the historic career that he enjoyed. A 10-time All-Star and two-time champion, Allen’s remarkable longevity and dead-eye shooting ability combined perfectly for him to break what was once Reggie Miller’s all-time triples record. Labelling him solely as a “shooter” would be dishonest; his all-around game, particularly in his younger days, allowed him to develop into one of the league’s elite two-guards. The former Connecticut Husky was in attendance at the Garden yesterday to congratulate Curry, with the pair sharing a moment shortly after the ownership of the record changed hands.

Reggie Miller

Once the league’s three-point king, Reggie Miller was as jovial and humble as ever on the call yesterday for TNT. Miller spent his entire 18-season long career as a Pacer, where he was rewarded with five All-Star nods. A gangly sniper who hailed from Riverside, California, Miller quietly overtook Dale Ellis’ three-point record in the 1997-98 season and held the crown until 2011. Whilst Miller’s name will continue to tumble down the all-time three-pointers list as time marches on, he deserves to long be remembered as a pioneer of the modern NBA. He was the first player ever to hit 2,000 threes and that is a fact that will not ever change.

James Harden

Like it or not, James Harden has proven himself as one of the most prolific three-point shooters of all-time. Harden has been a dominant name on three-point shooting lists for a number of seasons now and will continue climbing up the all-time list. He will have an opportunity to surpass Allen over the next two or three seasons and will not stop there. A combination of being largely overshadowed Curry’s behind-the-arc brilliance and his own offensive all-around brilliance has resulted in Harden probably not getting due credit for his three-point shooting. At just 32, he is already fourth all-time in made threes and is the only player over the past decade to lead the league in three-point makes for a single season outside of Curry. The former Arizona State Sun Devil has every chance to hit 3,000 career threes, a mark that Curry will likely become the first to ever hit in the coming weeks.

Kyle Korver

If someone was to search for the word “laser” in the dictionary, an image of Kyle Korver deserves to be alongside any definition. A journeyman with stints in Philadelphia, Utah, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Milwaukee, the one constant of Korver’s career was his innate ability to hit threes regularly and consistently. The only player in NBA history to lead the league in three-point percentage in four separate seasons, Korver quickly developed a reputation as someone who defenders could not lose behind-the-arc. The best season of Korver’s career came in the 2014-15 season on the 60-win Hawks, hitting 221 threes at a 49.2% clip en route to his only All-Star appearance.

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As extraordinary as Curry’s three-point run has been, basketball’s three-point revolution may mean that his newly-broken total is not as unbreakable as it appears. Curry spent three seasons at Davidson and took a few seasons to make the leap from “elite shooter” to “greatest shooter ever”. Prior to turning 22, Curry played 65 games and hit 123 threes – hardly eye-popping. Since then, eight players have gone on to hit 300-plus threes prior to turning 22. The three-point leader-boards will keep on reading differently as long as the three-point revolution continues to grow exponentially and players continue declaring for the draft at younger ages.

Breakable or not, Curry’s three-point records will be topics of conversation in the basketball world for many years to come. In every sense of the word, that scrawny sniper out of Davidson has proven himself a generational showman and superstar.

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