Any basketball fan that watched last night's game between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder has to appreciate the kind of show Stephen Curry has been putting on all season long. The 3-pointers, the wins, the excitement...it's truly unlike anything I've seen in a while.
The game of basketball is certainly changing. We're living in an era where the 3-point field goal is being attempted at rates higher than we've ever witnessed. When players are shooting them at an effective percentage, why not shoot the 3? The reward is totally worth it.
I've been playing pickup ball and in basketball leagues for over a decade now and it's amazing to me how much the game has changed. I personally have always been a 3-point shooter, but back in the day when I first started playing pickup at the rec center at the University of Arizona, games went to 11 and there was no 2-point basket, everything you made was worth 1. Now the norm is to play pickup games up to 15 where anything inside 19-feet is worth 1 and anything outside of that is worth 2. However, the kids these days are not shooting them at the arc anymore. There's this "monkey see, monkey do" mentality and now a lot of them try to shoot from NBA range, which is 24 feet or so. Whether they actually make these shots is another story. I've left them open until they prove they can make it from that range, but once they do, it's easy to stop if you just play some defense on them.
I am definitely no Stephen Curry, none of these kids are. During practice I sometimes hoist shots from 24-28 feet deep, but my percentage from out there has to be less than 30% (and those are uncontested attempts). When you watch Curry on TV, he really makes it look effortless when in fact, these are extremely difficult shots for any normal human being to make. They showed a statistic last night that revealed his percentage of makes from beyond 28-feet and it was a mind-boggling +64%. Simply incredible.
It's just interesting watching the game evolve. The Golden State Warriors could be the net big dynasty and while LeBron has had his chance to be the heir to Air Jordan, we are watching the becoming of a new king who is establishing a new type of throne, one that is built around the 3-point shot. I am still a LeBron fan and hope he can win a few more championships, but damn, you have to just tip your hat to Curry and appreciate his phenomenal talent.
