Leave it to the Harlem Globetrotters. Those innovative roundball wizards, who helped popularize the slam dunk, alley-oop, and behind-the-back pass, debuted a four-point line last year — 30 feet out from the tin — which rewards mad bombers jacking from a distance six-plus feet beyond the top of the NBA’s three-point line.
And where the Globetrotters have gone, the NBA might follow — at least if some league officials, on-the-record players, and hoop pundits, including former ESPN-er Bill Simmons, author of The Book of Basketball, have their way.
Yep, imagine a future where the Splash Brothers — Golden State’s Steph Curry and Klay Thompson — are raining four-pointers instead of threes, allowing their team to crush opponents even more mercilessly, or get right back in games they’re losing.
In 2014, ESPN reported league officials discussed adding such a line. In a TV interview that same year, president of NBA operations Rod Thorn confirmed the report, then shared memories from his days as New Jersey Nets general manager, recalling Vince Carter’s ability to effortlessly launch 30-footers in games and practice.
Ex-Lakers great and former head coach Byron Scott has expressed support for the idea, while Hall of Fame Celtic legend Larry Bird — a three-time Three-Point Shootout champion and longtime Indiana Pacers executive — said this to The New Yorker in 2015: “Every ten, twelve, fifteen years, there’s something new coming in. You put that four-point line in there and people will start practicing. And once they start practicing, they get better at it… The game evolves.”
Current NBA sharpshooters Kyle Korver and Damian Lillard are on-board. “I’m in,” Korver stated to The New Yorker, adding that it would bring fun to the game. In an interview with Dan Patrick, Portland’s Lillard lamented the three-point line’s lack of challenge. “You’ve got so many guys shooting it so easy!” he told the radio host.
Put Reggie Miller down for a no vote. “It’s comical,” says the ex-Pacer star and TNT commentator, who held the record for most threes made when he retired in 2005. “The league will be a laughingstock, and I will [be] laughing the loudest.”
A four-point shot’s impact on stats is one reason opponents reject the idea. (The NBA faced something similar before, in 1979, when it adopted the three; baseball went through its own version when the American League created the designated hitter.) Beyond this is a concern with on-court product. Some fear Ugly Ball — too many dudes firing bricks from deep. Now a Cavalier, Korver himself — who converted an NBA-record 53.6 percent of his threes while playing for Atlanta in 2009-10 — anticipates some “ugly possessions.”
Others fear players would get too good at this four-point jackpot. The shot would over-advantage the offense, they argue, tilting the game out of balance.
Right now, critics fearing Ugly Ball have stats on their side. During the 2015-16 season, for example, players shot just 18.6 percent from ten yards out. Lillard himself knocked down only two of 16. Steph Curry, though, did his best to pull that league-wide average up. While everyone else was clanking, he canned an insane 22 of 45.
Then again, things would change if shooters started regularly practicing their 30-foot stroke, as Bird suggests. His own career offers insight. During 1983-84, he made just 24.7 percent of his threes. One year later, he shot 42.7 percent. Other players made big jumps in the mid-eighties, too. Collectively, shooters realized the trey was far more than a “gimmick,” as naysayers charged, and began honing their deep shot.
Whatever your view of a new court line (stupid-ass messing with a game that ain’t broke, say, or hell yeah — incentivize the bombers!), one thing is clear: the quad could lead to some wild buzzer-beaters. And that got me thinking: What current or former players would you want launching from 30 feet with a team down four and a tick left on the clock?
I looked up deep-ball stats. I watched videos. And I assembled a dream team of five long-range assassins. It was hard leaving Jamal Crawford and Dan Majerle, Chuck “the Rifleman” Person and Dennis Scott, Ray Allen and Klay T. off the squad. Steph’s dad Dell (who shot a gold-standard 40 percent from three) got a look, too. But weighing range, accuracy, and clutch lethality, I reached a final cut.
1. Steph Curry
No-brainer. He’s in his own league when it comes to launching from extra-deep. Paint another arc on the court and people would start calling it the “Curry Line.” Dell’s son shoots better from 30 feet than a handful of players shoot from the free-throw line. An ESPN “Sports Science” segment focused entirely on Curry’s mechanics from this distance. Show technicians determined his wrist flexion per second as he projects the ball is 3,000 degrees. And they’ve never measured a quicker release. All hail the Human Torch.
2. LeBron James
Granted, Bron-Bron only reached the 40 percent mark from three in one of his 14 full seasons (2012-13, playing for Miami), and his career-percentage is 34.2 (he’s up a couple points this year), but as anyone who’s watched even a few of his games knows, the dude can hit from 35 feet with ease, even with defenders in his grill, and he’s got ice water in his veins. He’s half linebacker, half archer. He’d nail his share of game-tying quads.
3. Kobe Bryant
Speaking of range and sang-froid, the Black Mamba (career 32.9 from three) demonstrated time and again he could knock down a 30-footer when the mood struck him, or his team, the Lakers, needed it. Bryant had the handle, hops, and ‘tude to jack a pull-up from way deep.
4. Vince Carter
Rod Thorn was right. Watching clips of Nets-era Vinsanity knock down 30-footers, some of them buzzer-beaters, was a research highlight. One of the NBA’s greatest all-time dunkers has also averaged 37.4 percent from three and four times topped 40 percent in his 20-season career (now a Sacramento King, Carter turned 41 in January!).
5. Gilbert Arenas
Agent Zero — aka the Hibachi — was a threat to shoot basically any time he got a couple steps past the half-court line. Treat yourself to the YouTube clip of Arenas and Tracy McGrady dueling from 35 feet in a 2005 Katrina fund-raiser all-star game. A 35.1 career shooter beyond the arc, Arenas had a flair for the dramatic. A four-pointer? Sign him up.
