Three-Pointer!

The three-point shot has been an NBA institution for more than 40 years, with the first long-distance bombs fired on October 12, 1979. The game has since changed dramatically. Critics today contend that three-pointers have gotten out of hand. Attempts rose from 2.8 per game in the 1979–1980 season to 18.4 in 2011–2012 to 32 in 2018–2019. Charting this development, this volume focuses on examples of 12 performances by 12 exceptional shooters—with mention of many more. Starting with Chris Ford and ending with Steph Curry, the author shows how these athletes have changed the NBA one shot at a time.

Lukasz Muniowski (Ph.D., American literature, University of Warsaw) has written numerous academic articles on various topics, including gentrification, geek culture, American literature, video games and television series. He lives in Poland.

Łukasz Muniowski
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 208
Bibliographic Info: 16  photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8295-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4121-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
Introduction 5
October 12, 1979: Chris Ford Makes the First Three-Pointer in League History 17
February 6, 1988: Larry Bird Reclaims the Title of the Three-Point King 29
March 23, 1991: Michael Adams Scores 54 Points with Particularly Ugly Shots 43
June 3, 1992: Michael Jordan Shrugs His Way to Another Memorable Performance 57
May 7, 1995: Reggie Miller Scores Eight Points in Nine Seconds Against the Knicks 69
April 19, 1996: George McCloud Goes from Draft Bust to NBA Record Holder 88
February 8–9, 1997: Steve Kerr and Glen Rice Dominate the ­All-Star Weekend 106
May 26, 2002: Robert “Big Shot Rob” Horry Strikes Again 118
February 18, 2006: Dirk Nowitzki Becomes the Tallest Three-Point Contest Winner Ever 130
June 18, 2013: Ray Allen Makes the Most Famous Shot of His Career 147
March 8, 2015: Steph Curry Proves That He Can Score from Anywhere on the Court 164
Chapter Notes 181
Bibliography 191
Index 193

• “Like the athletes whose talents he’s examining, Lukasz Muniowski goes deep: His research is meticulous and satisfying, and his writing is thorough and precise. This book is an essential tool to understanding not just the global popularity of basketball, but also the cultural and historical pivot points that help us understand the era-defining significance of the three-point shot.”—Kent Babb, Washington Post

• “Łukasz Muniowski is a great storyteller. He takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of the three-point shot. His detailed and entertaining story of the three-pointer as a game-changing element in basketball not only gives fans a chance to relive some most memorable moments from the NBA past, but also offers an original and well-documented account of the ways in which basketball has developed as a spectator sport in the last four decades. The book is certainly worth giving it a shot.”— Zbigniew Mazur, author, The Power of Play: Leisure, Recreation, and Cultural Hegemony in Colonial Virginia

• “Like baseball’s home run and the six in cricket, basketball’s three point ball is guaranteed to produce excitement. In this well-researched, insightful and highly entertaining book, Muniowski does justice to this innovation in a series of cameos of the key moments in its development. The long-distance shot, he argues, is here to stay.”—Alan Bairner, Loughborough University, joint editor of the Routledge Handbook of Sport and Politics