Stephen Curry’s reputation will be inextricably linked to the Three-point line precision trend that he started and the fact that he is capable of swinging NBA Odds. Not just in the NBA but also in the sport of basketball all over the globe, because of the superhuman precision with which he shot from beyond the Three-point line arc. This revolution was a long time coming, with over 35 years having passed since the Three-point line arc was first used in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

How It Came To Be

It was meant to be an experiential addition and rule when the NBA introduced the Three-point line in 1979-80 during the rookie seasons of future Basketball Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The NBA was not, however, the first professional basketball league to use a Three-point line. American Basketball Association (ABA) is credited for popularizing the Three-point line after the American Basketball League (ABL) ceased operations in 1963.

The ABA’s first commissioner, George Mikan, remarked in the book Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association, “We nicknamed it the home run because the three-pointer was just that.” It caused supporters to leave their seats. A five-time NBA champion with the Minneapolis Lakers, Mikan claimed that the three-point shot would “give the smaller players a chance to score and make the game more entertaining for viewers.”

Even after the 1976 merger between the NBA and ABA, the Three-point line was not implemented. It took three further years to establish its spot in the league.

In its original configuration, the Three-point line was placed 22 feet from the basket in the corners and 23 feet and 9 inches from the top of the arc. In a 114-106 victory against the Houston Rockets, Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics is credited with hitting the first Three-point line shot in NBA history.

What Has It Become

The three-point line was first used in all FIBA tournaments in 1984 at a distance of 20 feet and six inches. The following year, in 1988, it made its debut at the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) used the same Three-point line in the following year (1987) and placed it at a distance of 19 feet, 9 inches from the basket. In response to a decline in scoring, the league shortened the distance between the three-point line and the hoop from 23 feet and nine inches to 22 feet over the course of three seasons, beginning in 1994 and ending in 1997.

In 1994, Rod Thorn, who served as the vice president for operations of the NBA, said that “scoring in this league has gone down for ten consecutive years.” There was a reduction in the number of shots taken by each team. They have a greater amount of possession of the ball.

The reduced line did not do what it set out to do in general, despite the fact that a select few players, such as Steve Kerr and Dell Curry, used the opportunity to establish records for Three-point line shots. The overall number of points scored in each game continued to decrease, which is what caused the adjustment that pushed the line back to its original distance of 23 feet and nine inches at its longest point.

Since 1997, this distance has stayed the same, despite the fact that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been having conversations with his competition committee about the idea of moving the existing line back rather than creating a new four-point line.

Before The Begining

When the Three-point line was briefly introduced to the ABA in the late 1960s, an entire generation of coaches was forced to re-evaluate everything they had previously learned about the game. As a result, the game became much more chaotic. One coach in the ABA says that in the beginning, he almost never utilized the three-point shot unless it was the last few minutes of the game and his team desperately needed points. This first method resulted in a great deal of confusion, and it took the players some time to comprehend the time and score conditions and when to take it.

The NBA went through a time of uncertainty and growing pains over the infamous Three-point line, and Michael Jordan is the ultimate illustration of this. He participated in collegiate basketball at North Carolina, which did not have a Three-point line during his time there. In his first major league season, he played for the Chicago Bulls and had a Three-point line shooting percentage of 9 for 52. He never had a long-range shooting percentage that was greater than 20 percent until he was in his fifth season in the NBA. However, by the time his extraordinary career with the Bulls came to an end, he was routinely hitting more than 35 percent from beyond the arc. However, there is a new threat to the three-point line!