Right Before Our Eyes
What Steph Curry is doing will last for decades
Sometimes, we are guilty of failing to understand the magnitude of history being created right before our eyes.
The Koppett Kat regularly illuminates the challenge of breaking sports records, historic standards such as Henry Aaron’s career total bases record, Mariano Rivera’s lifetime saves mark, Nolan Ryan’s career strikeouts, and Wayne Gretzky’s career points totals. What is different about this review is the mark is being created and updated in real time, game by game, basket by successful basket.
With every three-point shot drained from the arc to the logo and sometimes, beyond, Steph Curry adds to a record that may not be broken for decades and may not be broken ever—right before us on multi-camera angle video.
Barring injury or a prolonged slump, before the end of the 2024-25 National Basketball Association season, the Warriors’ sharpshooter will become the first player in league history to mesh 4,000 three-point field goals.
SPLASH THE WATER
How impressive is that threshold? Only one other player in pro basketball history has accumulated 3,000—James Harden is still active, but his pace has slowed considerably.
After averaging 275 made three-point field goals over a six-season span, Harden has not tallied more than 186 in the last four campaigns, averaging 154. In the twilight of his Hall of Fame career, Harden will be fortunate to finish with more than 3,300, well behind Curry’s continuing mark.
Only one other player has more than 2,700 (30% less than Curry)—Ray Allen, who is retired.
REACH FOR THE SKY
What would a player need to do to reach Curry’s mark?
Well, to reach 4,000, a player would need to average 300 made three-point field goals for 13+ seasons. In NBA history, three hundred rainmakers have been reached only seven times in a season and, you guessed it, Curry owns five of those occasions, including a league record 402 in the 2015-16 season. Harden reached 379 in 2018-19 and Curry’s longtime Splash Brother, Klay Thompson, sunk 301 in the 2022-23 campaign.
Well, how about an average of 250 per season? Sixteen seasons.
250 has been achieved thirty-four times in NBA history by thirteen different players. And ten or almost one-third of those instances, belong to…wait for it…Curry. Only four players have compiled more than 250 three-point field goals in a season more than three times (Buddy Hield 5, Harden 4, Thompson 4).
Of active players, Damian Lilliard has achieved more than 250 three-point field goals in a season only twice (2019-2020 = 270, 2020-2021 = 275). At 34, Lilliard will pass Allen and may catch Harden but, will never approach Curry.
Thompson is also 34, and, arguably, on the downside of his career. He can still fill in streaks, but, 3,000 is a more reasonable goal than 4,000 at this point. If Thompson had not missed two and a half seasons due to injuries…
A UNICORN
No other player features Curry’s unique secret sauce of volume, success, age, and system. The Davidson product has led the NBA in three-point field goal attempts in a season eight times and three-point field goals made eight times. He is the career leader in three-point field goal attempts. While he has missed a significant number of games in the last few years due to a variety of injuries and scheduled rest, his production, when active, is still amongst the highest in the game.
In a system that needs Curry to hit from the arc for optimal success, the 6’2” guard has delivered at a rate rare in NBA history for his volume. His conversion rate of 42.5% ranks 12th all-time and of the 11 players ahead of him, only Kyle Korver is in the top 25 all-time in three-point field goals made.
One other potential factor may make the chase for Curry’s three-point field goal standard even more unapproachable. Given the decline in television ratings, particularly amongst the key 18-34 year old demographic and noise that the ascendant strategy of maximizing the three-point shot is making the game stale and unwatchable, the NBA may consider extending the arc, enacting rules to dissude so many three-point attempts, or take other actions to de-incentivize three-point shots.
Curry is signed through the 2026-2027 season, which is widely speculated to be his final campaign at the age of 38. By then, Chef Curry is likely place the career three-point field goal mark at a level that may be unbreakable. Right before our eyes.
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