Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) defeated Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty) on Saturday in the first three-point contest between stars of the North American men’s (NBA) and women’s (WNBA) basketball leagues at NBA All-Star 2024, this Saturday.
This challenge was the main novelty of the NBA All-Star Game weekend in Indianapolis.
Ionescu, who won the WNBA contest with an astonishing score last year, started the match with a score of 26 points.
That same figure had served Damian Lillard minutes before to win the traditional NBA three-point contest for the second year in a row.
Curry, the best shooter in NBA history, started his turn with some errors but got better in the final moments until he finished with 29 points.
After the battle, Ionescu and Curry hugged each other and expressed their wish that events of this type continue to be repeated between both leagues.
“A night like this shows that if you know how to shoot, you know how to shoot. It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl,” Ionescu stressed to the applause of the Indianapolis audience. “It was incredible to be the first to participate in this type of event and put on a great show but understand what this means.”
“I’m excited to change the narrative and be able to do it alongside the greatest in this,” said the 26-year-old player.
“She set the bar high,” Curry said. “It was amazing to see it (…) We need to do this more often.”
Who is Sabrina Ionescu, Stephen Curry’s rival?
Last year, Ionescu had a WNBA-record three-point shooting contest, missing only two of her 27 shots and making 20 hits in a row.
His exhibition unleashed praise from the basketball world, including Curry, a double winner of the NBA contest (2015 and 2021), whom Ionescu then challenged to compete in this head-to-head match.