Two of the top three-point shooters in professional basketball will be facing off against each other this month, but it won’t be the first time for such a “battle of the sexes” competition.
Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu will battle to determine who is the better overall three-point shooter in a Feb. 17 competition that will be part of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
This showdown is drawing a lot of attention, but there have been other similar events.
For example, in 1938, famed female athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharia competed in the Los Angeles Open, a PGA Tour event, against a field of male golfers. Although she did not win, she was still able to show off her skills and challenge the men.
Perhaps the most famous “battle of the sexes” was a 1973 tennis match featuring Billie Jean King, one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, and Bobby Riggs, who had once been a top player but was by that time was 55 years old.
Riggs, while showing a lot of self-confidence, lost to King in the match.
The upcoming three-point shooting competition, meanwhile, will provide an interesting perspective on basketball abilities.
Many people say that in basketball – from the professional level all the way down through high school – the men’s game has way more physicality and athleticism to it than the women’s game. But since this will be a three-point contest, it takes out the physicality and athleticism part of the game to put the focus on shooting ability.
Curry is arguably the best shooter ever in the NBA and one of the best point guards ever. He not only leads the NBA all-time in three-pointers made, but he is shooting 42.6 percent from the three throughout his whole career.
Although Curry and his team, the Golden State Warriors, are having a down year, there is no way he would pass up a chance to show off his shooting ability in a three-point contest.
On the other side, Ionescu, of the New York Liberty, is one of the top shooters in the WNBA, if not the best. In her last season, Ionescu shot almost 45 percent from the three, which is an outstanding percentage to have and is not seen much from anyone else – in the NBA or the WNBA.
The NBA has decided that Curry and Ionescu will face the same conditions that they have during an actual game. Curry will use a men’s basketball, shooting from the NBA three-point line, while Ionescu will be shooting with a women’s basketball from the WNBA three-point line.
Last season, in Ionescu’s most recent performance in a three-point contest, she recorded a score of 37 out of a possible 40 points, which easily won the contest. This has never been done by any other professional basketball player, and it was remarkable.
Curry, on the other hand, has won two three-point contests, showing his main strength and ability, which is definitely to make the three-point shot.
Watching these two face off will not only be a part of history, but will also have fans excited to see who will take it all. If Ionescu can put up as many points as she did in her last three-point contest, then Curry does not stand a chance to win.
