Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
February 15, 2008, Washington Post

Three's a Crowd-Pleaser

The three-point shootout is a highlight of the National Basketball Association's All-Star Weekend. On Saturday night Jason Kapono of the Toronto Raptors will defend his long-shot title against sharpshooters such as Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns.

Three-point baskets -- in which a player gets three points instead of two for a long shot -- are a big deal in basketball. Many games, even kids' games, are decided by three-point shots. But the three-pointer has not always been part of the game.

When James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, he nailed peach baskets to the wall and used a soccer ball. When the ball went in the basket, a team got one point. Later, teams got two points for a basket and one point for a foul shot.

The three-point rule was tested in a college game in 1945. It didn't catch on. Two pro leagues -- the American Basketball League and the Eastern Professional Basketball League -- experimented with a three-point shot in the early 1960s.

The three-pointer got popular only when a new league, the American Basketball Association, started in the late 1960s. The ABA tried lots of new things, including a red-white-and-blue ball, to make the game more exciting and to compete with the older, more traditional NBA.

The NBA and ABA merged in 1976, and the NBA adopted the three-point shot in the 1979-80 season. College basketball did the same in the 1980s.

Some coaches and fans complain that the three-point shot has hurt the game because too many players opt for long shots rather than moving the ball closer to the basket for easier two-point shots. Three-pointers are especially hard for kids to make. It takes a lot of strength and practice to hit them consistently.

But the three-point shot does make games more exciting. Just about every team has a three-point shooting specialist. Reggie Miller, a star for 18 seasons with the Indiana Pacers, holds the NBA record for three-point baskets: 2,560. Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets once scored 13 points in 35 seconds with four three-point baskets and a foul shot.

Leagues have changed the distance of the three-point arc from time to time, but it looks like the three-point shot and the All-Star Weekend shootout are here to stay.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company