Three-Point Contest

The Three-Point Contest^[1] is a National Basketball Association (NBA) contest held on the Saturday before the annual All-Star Game as part of All-Star Weekend.

The 2019 iteration of the contest involved ten participants. From its introduction in 1986 to 2018, eight participants were selected to participate in each season's shootout. In 2002-2003 to 2012-2013 there were six participants. Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks is the most recent winner of the event which was held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Rules

In this contest, participants attempt to make as many three-point field goals as possible from five positions behind the three-point line in one minute. Players begin shooting from one corner of the court, and move from station to station along the three-point arc until they reach the other corner.^[2] At each shooting station is a rack with five basketballs. Out of the five balls, four are worth one point (the standard orange Anta Sports game balls) and the fifth one (a red/white/blue ABA-style ball; often nicknamed the "money ball")^[3][4] is worth two points. The goal of this contest is to score as many points as possible within one minute. A perfect score used to be 30 points.^[5][6] Since the 2014 contest, a rack consisting only of "money balls" has been added, and can be placed on any of the 5 spots of the player's choice, bringing up the maximum possible score to 34 points.^[7] In the 2020 contest, two additional Mountain Dew shots were placed on each side of the top of the key, worth three points each. This increased the maximum possible score to 40, and the time limit was increased from 60 to 70 seconds.^[8]

In the qualifying round, each player has a chance to score as many points as possible. The three players with the top scores advance to the finals. The final round is played in the same way as the qualifying round, but players shoot according to the ascending order of their first-round scores. In each round, the shots and the score are confirmed by the referee and the television instant replay system.^[4][9] The final round will be shot in reverse direction (left to right corner for a left-handed shooter and vice versa). In the case of a tie, multiple extra rounds of 30 seconds (1 minute in the final) are played to determine the winner.

Milestones

• Larry Bird, the inaugural winner of this contest, and Craig Hodges have each won three consecutive times, while Mark Price, Jeff Hornacek, Peja Stojaković, Jason Kapono, and Damian Lillard have each won two consecutive times.
• Craig Hodges holds the record for most shots made in one round (21/25, .840 percentage), as well as most consecutive shots made (19), most appearances (8), and most points (25 out of a possible 30 points, .833 percentage)
• Detlef Schrempf and Michael Jordan share the record for the fewest points scored in any round with five in 1988 and 1990, respectively.^[10]
• Kyrie Irving is the youngest player to win the contest at the age of 20.
• Rimas Kurtinaitis is the only non-NBA player to participate in the contest.
• Dirk Nowitzki is the first 7-foot player to win the contest.
• Damian Lillard is the last person to ever win back to back.
• Jason Kapono co-holds the record for most shots in a round (21/25, .840 percentage).
• Karl-Anthony Towns is the 2nd and NOT the 1st power forward/center at 7.0 height to win the contest.

Winners

Season	Location	Player	Nationality	Team	Final Score/Max	% Score
1985–86	Dallas, Texas	Larry Bird*	United States	Boston Celtics	22 / 30	73.33%
1986–87	Seattle, Washington	Larry Bird* (2)	United States	Boston Celtics (2)	16 / 30	53.33%
1987–88	Chicago, Illinois	Larry Bird* (3)	United States	Boston Celtics (3)	17 / 30	56.67%
1988–89	Houston, Texas	Dale Ellis	United States	Seattle SuperSonics	19 / 30	63.33%
1989–90	Miami, Florida	Craig Hodges	United States	Chicago Bulls	19 / 30	63.33%
1990–91	Charlotte, North Carolina	Craig Hodges (2)	United States	Chicago Bulls (2)	17 / 30	56.67%
1991–92	Orlando, Florida	Craig Hodges (3)	United States	Chicago Bulls (3)	16 / 30	53.33%
1992–93	Salt Lake City, Utah	Mark Price	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	18 / 30	60.00%
1993–94	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Mark Price (2)	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers (2)	24 / 30	80.00%
1994–95	Phoenix, Arizona	Glen Rice	United States	Miami Heat	17 / 30	56.67%
1995–96	San Antonio, Texas	Tim Legler	United States	Washington Bullets	20 / 30	66.67%
1996–97	Cleveland, Ohio	Steve Kerr	United States	Chicago Bulls (4)	22 / 30	73.33%
1997–98	New York City, New York	Jeff Hornacek	United States	Utah Jazz	16 / 30	53.33%
1998–99[a]	Canceled due to the 1998–99 NBA lockout[a]
1999–00	Oakland, California	Jeff Hornacek (2)	United States	Utah Jazz (2)	13 / 30	43.33%
2000–01	Washington, D.C.	Ray Allen*	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	19 / 30	63.33%
2001–02	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Peja Stojaković	Serbia	Sacramento Kings	19 / 30[b]	63.33%
2002–03	Atlanta, Georgia	Peja Stojaković (2)	Serbia	Sacramento Kings (2)	22 / 30[b]	73.33%
2003–04	Los Angeles, California	Voshon Lenard	United States	Denver Nuggets	18 / 30	60.00%
2004–05	Denver, Colorado	Quentin Richardson	United States	Phoenix Suns	19 / 30	63.33%
2005–06	Houston, Texas (2)	Dirk Nowitzki*	Germany	Dallas Mavericks	18 / 30	60.00%
2006–07[11]	Las Vegas, Nevada	Jason Kapono	United States	Miami Heat (2)	24 / 30	80.00%
2007–08[1]	New Orleans, Louisiana	Jason Kapono (2)	United States	Toronto Raptors	25 / 30	83.33%
2008–09	Phoenix, Arizona (2)	Daequan Cook	United States	Miami Heat (3)	19 / 30[b]	63.33%
2009–10	Dallas, Texas (2)	Paul Pierce*	United States	Boston Celtics (4)	20 / 30	66.67%
2010–11	Los Angeles, California (2)	James Jones	United States	Miami Heat (4)	20 / 30	66.67%
2011–12	Orlando, Florida (2)	Kevin Love^	United States	Minnesota Timberwolves	17 / 30[b]	56.67%
2012–13	Houston, Texas (3)	Kyrie Irving^	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers (3)	23 / 30	76.67%
2013–14	New Orleans, Louisiana (2)	Marco Belinelli	Italy	San Antonio Spurs	24[b] / 34[c]	70.59%
2014–15	Brooklyn, New York (2)	Stephen Curry^	United States	Golden State Warriors	27 / 34[c]	79.41%
2015–16	Toronto, Ontario	Klay Thompson^	United States	Golden State Warriors (2)	27 / 34[c]	79.41%
2016–17	New Orleans, Louisiana (3)	Eric Gordon^	United States	Houston Rockets	21[b] / 34[c]	61.76%
2017–18	Los Angeles, California (3)	Devin Booker^	United States	Phoenix Suns (2)	28 / 34[c]	82.35%
2018–19	Charlotte, North Carolina (2)	Joe Harris^	United States	Brooklyn Nets	26 / 34[c]	76.47%
2019–20	Chicago, Illinois (2)	Buddy Hield^	Bahamas	Sacramento Kings (3)	27 / 40[c][d]	67.5%
2020–21	Atlanta, Georgia (2)	Stephen Curry^ (2)	United States	Golden State Warriors (3)	28 / 40[c][d]	70.00
2021–22	Cleveland, Ohio (2)	Karl-Anthony Towns^	Dominican Republic	Minnesota Timberwolves (2)	29 / 40[c][d]	72.50%
2022–23	Salt Lake City, Utah (2)	Damian Lillard^	United States	Portland Trail Blazers	26 / 40[c][d]	65.00%
2023–24	Indianapolis, Indiana	Damian Lillard^ (2)	United States	Milwaukee Bucks (2)	26 / 40[c][d]	65.00%

Three Point Contest champions by franchise

All-time participants

Records

Sources:^{[1][11][12][13]}

Sponsors

Sources:^[1][14]

Criticism and controversies

In the 2024 three-point contest, fans expressed dissatisfaction with referees for permitting participants, notably Karl-Anthony Towns, to shoot while their feet were on the line.^[15]

Notes

• ^a The 1999 All-Star Game was cancelled due to the 1998–99 NBA lockout.
• ^b Denote contests that required a tiebreaking round. The final score given here came from the tiebreaker.^[16]
• ^c Starting with the 2014 Three-Point Contest, the format includes four extra "money balls".
• ^d Starting with the 2020 Three-Point Contest, the format includes two extra long-range shots, worth three points each.
• ^e CJ McCollum was named as a replacement to Chris Bosh due to the latter being unable to participate in the event with a calf injury (and later on, a blood clot in his leg).
• ^f Mike Conley was named as a replacement to Devin Booker due to the latter being unable to participate in the event with a knee injury.
• ^g Julius Randle was named as a replacement to Anfernee Simons due to the latter being unable to participate in the event with a ankle injury.
• ^h Stephen Curry competed with Sabrina Ionescu of the WNBA's New York Liberty in an independent three-point shootout during the 2024 All-Star Weekend. Ionescu set the single-round record by an NBA or WNBA player during the 2023 WNBA All Star Weekend in Las Vegas with a second-round score of 37.^[17]

See also

• Three-Point Contest in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)

References

General

• "Shootout All-Time Winners". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
• "Shootout Round-by-Round Results: 2000–08". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
• "Shootout Round-by-Round Results: 1990–98". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on February 8, 2003. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
• "Shootout Round-by-Round Results: 1986–89". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
• "Shootout Records". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
• "All-Star Game Contests". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 19, 2008.

Specific