It’s not where Steph Curry has taken the NBA as he steps into history; it’s where he might take it next.
The Golden State Warrior star gained statistical recognition as the greatest shooter to ever walk the earth on Tuesday night when he broke Ray Allen’s record for career three-pointers made.
Anyone who’s watched him play during his career has known it for a while.
He faded slightly from the right wing, above the break, as he has hundreds of times before. From 28 feet it was pure, no rim. The game against the hometown New York Knicks was stopped as Curry was greeted his teammates, opponents and had a long embrace with his father, Dell Curry — an elite sharpshooter himself — who used to bring give his sons the run of the floor at the Air Canada Centre when he was knocking down triples for the Toronto Raptors.
It was a beautiful moment and fittingly Allen was at the game and Reggie Miller — whose record Allen broke — was on the call for TNT.
It was inevitable not only because he only needed two more makes to get to 2974, but also because it’s Curry. Allen’s record has been on borrowed time since Curry started changing the game.
And it’s a mark that Curry himself has made more meaningful than it ever was before.
There wasn’t all that much fanfare when Miller passed Dale Ellis for the record in the 1997-98 season. The category had only existed since the three-point line was introduced for the 1979-80 season. By the time Allen broke Miller’s mark in 2010-11 it had gained considerable significance. The three-point shot wasn’t yet widely recognized as the single most important weapon in the sport, but it was an essential part of the arsenal. Steve Nash and the seven-seconds-or-less Phoenix Suns had proven that.
But Curry setting the new mark is another demarcation point for how the three-point line has been activated to a degree no one ever anticipated. Perimeter shooting is the most important part of the game and Curry has been at the forefront of making it that way by showing the value not only of the three-point shot itself, but how the constant threat of it stretches defences past the breaking point.
Curry was already a two-time all-star when he earned his first MVP award following the 2015-16 season, so it wasn’t really a breakout season. But it was a breakaway.
Stephen Curry on tonight’s milestone. pic.twitter.com/8ncZvm8yLZ
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 15, 2021
It was the year that Curry broke with basketball convention. He took 886 threes — no one had ever attempted even 700 before — and he made 402.
It is the greatest shooting season in the history of the sport and so far beyond anything that came before you nearly need to check twice to make sure it wasn’t a mirage. Curry was blazing new trails the season before — 2014-15 — when he broke Allen’s single-season record of 269 makes with 272, but this was something different, a new way of imagining how to play.
This was Babe Ruth hitting 54 home runs in 1920, twice as many as anyone else had hit at that point
Steve Kerr — Curry’s coach with the Warriors — is the NBA’s most accurate three-point shooter at 45.4 per cent, but for his career 92.1 per cent of them were assisted. One season — 1998-99 — all of his three-pointers were. It was the definition of catch-and-shoot.
And now here was Curry taking more than 11 threes a game and shooting 45.4 per cent himself, yet with only just more than half — 54.7 per cent being created for him by others.
HISTORY AT THE GARDEN!
With three-pointers made, @StephenCurry30 is now the @NBA’s all-time 3-point leader! pic.twitter.com/ehIaoL9KqP
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 15, 2021
It’s what makes Curry different — the ability to create open three-point shots for himself while defences throw everything his way, much like Michael Jordan could find his way to the rim against loaded defences.
Curry’s accomplishments are sometimes best understood when they are compared to mere mortals.
A local example: In 27 seasons the Toronto Raptors have had some pretty good shooters do some impressive things. Perhaps the most impressive was when Kyle Lowry hit 238 three-pointers in 2017-18.
He blew past his previous franchise record for makes — 212 in 2015-16. No other Raptor has ever hit 200 threes in a season.
In Raptors terms, when it comes to three-point shooting, there is Lowry and everyone else.
Now consider: Lowry’s best season and by far the best shooting season in Raptors history wouldn’t rank in Steph Curry’s top-five.
Not even close, given that Curry’s best years for made threes are, in descending order, the epic 402; 354; 337; 324 and 286. After than it’s 272 and 261. The only season in the past eight and counting when Curry didn’t boat race Lowry’s best season was in 2017-18 when the Golden State Warriors star drained 2012 in just 51 games. Had he played his typical 75 games he would have been well over 300 made threes again.
How big a deal is 300 made threes in a season? The only other person to do it even once is James Harden, who made 378 in 2018-19, the second-best single season total ever. Harden took 1,028 threes that season, an NBA record by miles. Curry’s made at least 300 threes five times and — presuming good health — will do it easily this season: he’s on pace for 405 threes if he can play 75 games.
But what if he gets hot? So far Curry is shooting just 40.1 per cent from beyond the arc, which is elite for anyone else, but would be Curry’s worst shooting mark for a full season. If Curry converts closer to his career average of 43.1 per cent for the rest of the year, he could hit 420, shattering his own seemingly untouchable record.
All of which is to say that it’s not that Curry broke the record — a mark that Allen, a Hall-of-Famer and a two-time champion spent 1,300 games over 18 seasons in setting.
Congratulations to Steph Curry for making history and setting the new NBA All-Time 3-point record tonight!! Thank you @StephenCurry30 for revolutionizing the game of basketball forever! It was great to see his parents Dell and Sonya there supporting him!
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) December 15, 2021
It’s that Curry is in position to put the mark so far out of reach it’s hard to imagine anyone ever catching him.
Curry broke Allen’s record in 511 less games and in just his 13th season. He’s under contract for four more years after this one until he turns 38.
Presuming Curry averages 70 games a season and 4.5 made threes a game — his average since his first all-star season in 2013-14, though conservative give he averaged 5.3 makes last season and is at 5.4 this year — Curry could expect to make 315 threes a season.
By that math — and including 260 more triples this year — Curry could finish his career with 4,500 threes when his contract is up in following the 2025-26 season. If he plays another season or two, or simply has a couple more seasons comparable to what he’s done recently, 5,000 is very much in play.
In that light Curry is setting NBA records and jetting straight into Gretzky and Ruth territory. He’s not just making history, he’s making records that will take generations to break and which will make him synonymous with doing things that seemed impossible.
Is there someone in the NBA today that could catch Curry? Harden is two years younger but trails Curry by 463, or about two good seasons worth. Then again Curry is out-pacing Harden so far this season (140 to 64) and gapped him last season too (337-121). Harden seems to be slowing down while Curry is revving it up.
If Curry gets to 5,000, someone will have average 277 threes a season for 18 years to catch him. No one other than Curry has ever had more than two seasons like that.
Curry’s record makes it official: he’s the greatest shooter basketball has ever seen, and a singular force for change in the sport.
But his legend will continue to grow from here.
