Three-Point Contest

The Three-Point Contest (officially named the JBL Three-Point Contest^[1] and previously named the Three-Point Shootout)^[2] is a National Basketball Association (NBA) contest held on the Saturday before the annual All-Star Game as part of All-Star Weekend.

From its introduction in 1986 to 2002, and again in 2017, eight participants were selected to participate in each season's shootout. Between 2003 and 2016, the contest was open to just six competitors. Eric Gordon (Houston Rockets) is the most recent winner of the event which was held at Smoothie King Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Rules

In this contest, participants attempt to make as many three-point field goals as possible from five positions behind the three-point arc 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.^[3] At each shooting station is a rack with five basketballs. Out of the five balls, four are worth one point (the standard orange Spalding game balls) and the fifth one (a red/white/blue ABA-style ball; often nicknamed the "money ball")^[4][5] 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.^[6][7] In the 2014 contest, a rack consisting only of "money balls" was 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.^[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.^[5][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 (60 seconds in the final) are played to determine the winner.

Prize money

Contestants compete for a total of $86,000. The first-place winner receives $35,000; the second-place finisher receives $22,500, and the third-place winner receives $15,000. Finishers, from fourth to sixth place, receive $4,500 each.^[9]

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 and Jason Kapono have each won two consecutive times.
• Craig Hodges holds the record for most shots made in one round (21/25), as well as most consecutive shots made (19).
• Stephen Curry (final round, 2015) and Klay Thompson (final round, 2016) hold the record with 27 points, albeit in the newer 34-point format.
• 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.

Winners

Ray Allen won the contest in the 2000–01 season while playing with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Dirk Nowitzki won the contest in the 2005–06 season.

Jason Kapono won the contest in the 2006–07 and 2007–08 season while playing with the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat.

All-time participants

Records

Sources:^{[2][11][12][13]}

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.^[14]
• ^c Starting with the 2014 Three-Point Contest, the format includes four extra "money balls".
• ^d C.J. 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).
• ^e It is unknown how many of the five "money balls" Hodges hit during his round.

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. Retrieved December 17, 2008. 
• "Shootout Round-by-Round Results: 1990–98". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 17, 2008. 
• "Shootout Round-by-Round Results: 1986–89". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. 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