Evolution of the NBA’s greatest 3-point shooters from 1979 to 2019

Who’s the best 3-man scorer in NBA history? In this video made by the Youtube Statistics and Data channel, based on the data in the NBA database, you can see year after year, season after season, from 1979 to 2019, which are the 10 players who have scored the most points from 3 in the history of the NBA.

There are 8 champions who have followed one another in the leadership of this ranking: we are talking about legends of this sport such as Brian Taylor, Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Ray Allen. Ray Allen has been at the top of the standings since the 2009-2010 season when he overcame 2,560 baskets from Reggie Miller’s bow and reached 2,973 in the 2012-2013 season (a record that remains unbeaten to this day).

The longest-lived Leader

The NBA player who has long been the leader in this particular ranking is Reggie Miller. The former U.S. basketball player, now 54 years old, who has always played exclusively in the Indiana Pacers, was in the lead for 13 seasons from 1992-1993 to 2008-2009. Behind him, Ray Allen, winner of 2 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics in 2008 and the Miami Heat in 2013, with 10 seasons from 2009-2010 to date. While in third place we find Dale Ellis, active from 1983 to 2000, with 7 seasons: from 1987-1988 to 1988-1989 and from 1991-1992 to 1995-1996.

Some other interesting data on the three-point shootings

The player who made the most bombs in a single match is held by Golden State Warrios basketball player Klay Thompson, who managed to make as many as 14 triples in a single match, thus breaking Stephen Curry’s previous record.

Michael Jordan, on the other hand, holds the record for consecutive triples in a playoff game: in 1992 in the final against the Trail Blazers he managed to achieve something like 6 consecutive triples in a single match. Finally, one last interesting record concerns the one recorded by Tracy McGrady when in 2004 he made 3 triples in just 33 seconds in the daring final against San Antonio Spurs.

The 3 Points Rule in Basketball

Why does the ranking start in 1979 and not before? Simple, because the 3-point rule was only introduced in the NBA from 1979 onwards and previously in 1967 in the ABA.

In the NBA the distance for three-point shooting is 7.25 meters, although in the lines on the side it goes down to 6.72 meters.

Watch the full video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/ur8w9DD15X8