Happy Birthday to the Three

[Kori Ellis]

Closer look at evolution of 3-pointer on its 25th anniversary
Happy Birthday to the Three

By Rob Peterson

http://www.nba.com/germany/sharpshoo...ry_041012.html

This month, the NBA will celebrate its silver anniversary with a very special part of the game: the 3-point shot.

On October 12, 1979, in that season's first game, Boston Celtics guard Chris Ford, who would later become an NBA head coach, became the first player to make a 3-pointer in an NBA regular season game.

Ford's historic 3-pointer came with 3:48 remaining in the first quarter against the Houston Rockets in the Celtics' home opener. (Ironically, the game also featured the NBA debut of one the game's greatest 3-point shooters of all time: Larry Bird.)

Despite being introduced on a trial basis, the 3-point shot proved to be such a success in its debut season that the league made it a permanent part of the game. But in the early years of the 3-pointer, most NBA players and teams treated the shot as a gimmick at best and an afterthought at worst.

Twenty-five years later, the at ude toward the shot has changed. The 3-pointer has become an indispensable part of many teams' offenses and an oft-used weapon wielded by some of the league's best shooters such as Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki and Sacramento's Peja Stojakovic.

As a matter of fact, the 3-point line is a line that a few players seem to be unwilling to cross these days.

For example, take New Orleans point guard Baron Davis. Last season, Davis took a league-high 582 3-point attempts, or 42 percent of his 1,402 field goal attempts. For Stojakovic, who was second in the league in 3-point field-goal attempts with 554, nearly four out of every 10 field goals he attempted were from 3-point range, as was the case with Jamal Crawford, who took the third most 3-point attempts in the league (521 attempts out of 1,318 total).

Yet those three players look like they play in the paint when you compare them to two other players in the top 15 of 3-pointers attempted last season.

Of his 736 field-goal attempts last season, Hornets reserve guard Darrell Armstrong took 429 3-pointers -- an amazing 58.3 percent of his shots. Nearly 57 percent of Rafer Alston's field-goal attempts in 2003-04 were from 3-point range (434 3-pointers attempted of 764 total).

But the best way to see the proliferation of long-distance shooting is to put last season's statistics next to those statistics from more than two decades past. The difference is startling:

Most made, player, 1980-81: 57, Mike Bratz, Cleveland
Most made, player, 2003-04: 240, Peja Stojakovic, Sacramento

Most attempted, player, 1980-81: 169, Mike Bratz, Cleveland
Most attempted, player, 2003-04: 582, Baron Davis, New Orleans

Best 3-pt. pct., player, 1980-81: .383, Brian Taylor, San Diego
Best 3-pt. pct., player, 2003-04: .482, Anthony Peeler, Sacramento

Teams are also firing 3-pointers at an incredible rate these days. Seattle led the league last season with 23.6 3-point field-goal attempts per game. Or for every 10 shots the Sonics launched last season, three were from 3-point range. Only Utah and Cleveland (9.6) averaged fewer than 10 3-point attempts per game.

The team numbers also show a significant difference between the 1980-81 season and the 2003-04 season:

Most made, team, 1980-81: 132, San Diego
Most made, team, 2003-04: 723, Seattle

Most attempts, team, 1980-81: 407, San Diego
Most attempts, team, 2003-04: 1,936, Seattle

Fewest made, team, 1980-81: 10, Atlanta
Fewest made, team, 2003-04: 246, Cleveland

Fewest attempts, team 1980-81: 82, Atlanta
Fewest attempts, team, 2003-04: 786, Cleveland and Utah

Best pct., team, 1980-81: .324, San Diego
Best pct., team, 2003-04: .401, Sacramento

Worst pct., team, 1980-81: .122, Atlanta
Worst pct., team, 2003-04: .314, Cleveland

Perhaps most startling is the fact that the Atlanta Hawks made only 10 3-point shots ... for the entire 1980-81 season. That's two fewer than the NBA record for a single player in one game, as the Lakers' Kobe Bryant sank 12 threes against Seattle on 7 January 2003.

[timvp]

Thank you for making me the one dimensional player I am today

[E20]

three point shot is so hard. I used to be good but, now that I have tweaked my form it's impossible to adjust my leg power and arm power.

[Kori Ellis]

Thank you for making me the one dimensional player I am today

That's not true. In the city league, you played awesome D. But you do need to drive more when your outside shot isn't falling.

[ZStomp]

What's a 3?? I can't hit them if my life depended on them!