The 3-Point Contest didn’t always use to be this popular. There was a time when the three-point line was first introduced but basketball was all about pounding the paint. Sure, there were some solid sharpshooters in the league, but the three-point shot is nowhere near what it used to be. We are seeing a league shift its focus to outside shooting from the dunk contest even. We can thank Stephen Curry for that, but Curry isn’t even the all-time winner.

Curry is one of five players to win at least two titles. He joins Peja Stojakovic, Jeff Hornacek, Mark Price, and Jason Kapono. The only players to win at least three titles are Larry Bird and Craig Hodges. Bird won the first three contests of this event while Hodges also won three consecutive titles. Price, Hornacek, Stojakovic, and Kapono each won two consecutive titles.

In this contest, the participants try to make as many three-point field goals as possible from five positions from the three-point line in one minute. Players shoot from one corner and move from each station to the end of the arc. Each station consists of five basketballs. The fifth ball, known as the “money ball” is worth two points while the rest of the rack is worth one point. Since 2014, a rack consisting of only “money balls” has been added and can be played at any of the five spots of a player’s choosing. From 2014 to 2020, the max score a player could earn was 34. As of 2020, two additional “Mountain Dew” shots were placed on each side of the top of the key worth three points each, bringing the max score up to 40 points.

The 2023 3-Point Contest participants have been announced, which means another great chapter will be added. These are the all-time champions of the 3-Point Contest.

1986 – Larry Bird

In the first event, Craig Hodges looked like he was going to blow past the competition with 25 points in the first round. Hodges broke a tiebreaker in the semifinals to set up the showdown with Bird in the finals. However, Bird’s 22 points outlasted the 12 points from Hodges.

1987 – Larry Bird

Bird barely made the semifinals. Detlef Schrempf scored 19, while Michael Cooper and Danny Ainge scored 15 and 14 points respectively. In a three-way tie with Dale Ellis and Craig Hodges, Bird won the tie-breaker. Then, he outshot everyone in the semifinals with a top score of 18 points. In the final round against Schrempf, Bird narrowly won 16-14.

1988 – Larry Bird

For the third time in a row, Bird showcased his outside shooting. Byron Scott began the round with a high of 19 but didn’t make the finals after shooting cold with 11 in the second round. Bird was masterful in the semifinal with 23 but he went toe to toe with Dale Ellis in the championship round 17-15. Just like his three straight MVPs, Bird set a new record with three straight 3-Point Contest wins.

1989 – Dale Ellis

After coming up short a year ago, Ellis could walk away a champion. It was a back-and-forth battle between Hodges and Ellis. Hodges beat out Ellis 20-19 in the first round but both fired 18 in the second round. In the finals, Ellis won 19-15 to win the nail-biting event.

1990 – Craig Hodges

After years of looking up in the standings, Hodges finally got his flowers. Hodges and Jim Less have an epic battle with each other. Hodges beat out Les 16-15 in the first round but then Les outdueled Hodges 20-15. Both made the finals with Hodges barely beating out Les 16-15 to win his first title.

1991 – Craig Hodges

Hodges defended his title with a strong first round with 20 and then carried that hot hand over into the second round with 24. Hodges set a record for most consecutive shots made with 19. Terry Porter won a tie-breaker in the first round over Tim Hardaway and then narrowly made the finals with 14. In the championship round, Porter was no match as Hodges won 17-12.

1992 – Craig Hodges

The last 3-Point Contest three-peat came back in 1992. Jim Les returned to the championship round only to get beaten. In the first round, both Hodges and Les had the most points. Les outshot Hodges 20-15 in the second round, but Hodges got the last laugh with a 16-15 defeat of Les in the finals to cap off his third consecutive title.

1993 – Mark Price

There was no doubt that Price was the best. He made the most shots in every round. That started with 19 in the first round and 21 in the second round. In the finals, it was a closer battle with Terry Porter, whose 15 shots were just short of Price’s 16.

1994 – Mark Price

Price went back to back after a cold first round. Dale Ellis made 20 shots in the first round but finished with the worst score in the second round with 10. Price scabbed with 15 in the first round but then found his shooting touch with 21 in the semifinal. In the finals, Price ran away with the title with a 24-23 defeat over Danna Barros.

1995 – Glen Rice

Reggie Miller looked like he was going to live up to his name for his downtown presence in the league. Miller made the second round with 17 threes in the first round and then tied Rice with 19 to make the finals. The championship round featured a battle as Rice just beat out Miller 16-15.

1996 – Tim Legler

A huge contest by Tim Legler was one of the best performances we have ever seen. Never mind that Legler was a rookie at the time either. It was the first time a player scored at least 20 points in all three rounds. Legler led the way with 23 in the first round, followed by 22 in the semifinals. In the championship, Legler outshot Dennis Scott 20-14.

1997 – Steve Kerr

For the fourth time in the decade, a player from the Chicago Bulls won the award. Hodges completed his three-peat, while Kerr was in the middle of completing his championship. Kerr added an outside shooting award to his trophy case. Kerr had the fourth-best score in the first round but then went back-to-back 20s. Kerr shot 21 points in the semifinals and then beat Tim Legler 22-18 in the finals.

1998 – Jeff Hornacek

With a minimum effort, Hornacek was the winner in an anticlimactic finish. Hubert Davis had a strong semifinal but finished with an all-time worst finals round. Davis tied a record set by Hodges with 24 points, but his 10 points in the final were terrible. Hornacek beat out Dale Ellis in the tie-breaker to make the finals and then scored 16 points to win.

1999 – None

There was no 3-Point Contest due to the NBA lockout.

2000 – Jeff Hornacek

Hornacek technically completed the back-to-back sweep but won one of the worst contests in history. The final was ugly with Hornacek only needing 13 points to claim the title. The best streak was seven by Hornacek in the earlier rounds. Dirk Nowitzki set a record for being the tallest competitor at seven feet and also finished runner-up.

2001 – Ray Allen

Allen was the best all the way around. That included scoring nine points with 10 balls left, which included making nine consecutive shots to clutch out the win over Peja Stojakovic. His streak of 10 points helped him win 19-17 in the final round.

2002 – Peja Stojakovic

After coming up short in 2001, Stojakovic improved while defending champ Ray Allen was knocked out of the first round. In the final, Stojakovic tied Westley Person with 19 points. In the tie-breaker, Stojakovic won in 24 seconds 9-5. Both Stojakovic and Person stole the show in the first round too, each scoring at least 20 points, but it was Stojakovic with the best streak of nine consecutive threes.

2003 – Peja Stojakovic

Antoine Walker started the night off slowly but eventually, everything began to heat up with Brent Barry and Stojakovic, who both had 19 points in the first round. The final round featured a tie between Stojakovic and Wesely Person with 20 points each. In the tie-breaker, Stojakovic scored 22 points and hit four 3-colored balls, while Person had 16 points.

2004 – Voshon Lenard

In his first appearance, Lenard denied Stojakovic the three-peat. In the first round, Stojakovic looked like he was going to potentially pull off the trifecta when he led the field with 21 points. Kyle Korver had the best streak of nine straight to rattle off 19 points, but Lenard’s four 3-colored balls helped him finish with 18 points. In the final round, Lenard hit five 3-colored balls to nip Stojakovic 18-16.

2005 – Quentin Richardson

Lenard was on a tear to defend his title in the first round, finishing with a round-best 21 points, a best streak of five, and five 3-colored balls. Korver and Richardson had the second-best total with 14 points but the script turned in the final round. Lenard’s total dropped to 16 points, while Korver had 18 points. However, Richardson’s five 3-colored balls saved the day to finish with 19 points.

2006 – Dirk Nowitzki

Nowitzki became the tallest player to ever win the 3-Point Contest with his win in 2006. Ray Allen led the field in the first round with 19 points with Nowitzki and Gilbert Arenas moving on with 15. The final round featured Nowitzki pulling away with 18 points over the 16 points from Arenas and 15 points from Allen. He remains the only 7-footer to win this title.

2007 – Jason Kapono

Nowitzki and Arenas looked like they were both going to set the stage for a rematch in the 2006 finals. Arenas led the first round with 23 points with Nowitzki scoring 19 points. Kapono barely made it with 18 points, narrowly beating out the 18 points from Mike Miller. In the final round, Nowitzki turned cold with nine points, while Kapono turned up the heat to win the title with 24 points.

2008 – Jason Kapono

https://youtu.be/_elUrJG2nsI

The last player to ever repeat as the Three-Point champion is Kapono. This shooting night belonged to him from the start. Kapono led the first round with 20 points. Then, he destroyed the competition with 25 points. Daniel Gibson finished as the runner-up with 17 points but this was all about Kapono from the start.

2009 – Daequan Cook

This was a tight battle for both rounds. Cook led the way with 18 points in the first round but was tightly followed by Rashard Lewis’ 17 points and Kapono’s 16 points. Kapono was denied the three-peat when he finished with 14 points, which was just short of the 15 points by Cook and Lewis. In the tie-breaker, Lewis’ hot shooting touch turned to ice when he was defeated 19-7.

2010 – Paul Pierce

This was a night of redemption for Pierce. In 2002, he shot an awful eight points in the first round. He started from the bottom and worked his way up to champion. He battled Stpehen Curry and Chauncey Billups in the first round with each player netting at least 17 points. Billups slouched to 14 points in the finals with Curry hitting 17 points. Pierce rose to the challenge with 20 points to redeem himself officially.

2011 – James Jones

The first round was a disaster with Kevin Durant scoring six points and Daniel Gibson scoring seven points. Luckily, a pair of Celtics teammates and Jones made this a contest. Both Ray Allen and Paul Pierce made the final round. Allen’s stretch of 10 consecutive made shots was the best streak in 15 years. Pierce scored 18 points, while Allen scored 15, but Jones shot for 20 points to win his first title.

2012 – Kevin Love

Love took 80 total shots in this contest due to tie-breakers. Jones nearly defended his title. It had all the drama as Mario Chalmers and Ryan Anderson were both eliminated in the first round despite scoring 18 and 17 points respectively. It was the highest first-round score to be eliminated since 1996. Durant (20) and Jones (22) led the first round with Love winning the tie-breaker over Chalmers 5-4. In the championship, Love tied Durant with 16 points and then won the tie-breaker 17-14 to cap off the long competition.

2013 – Kyrie Irving

At 20 years old, Irving became the youngest champion in contest history. In this format, two players made the final round. The highest score from each conference advanced. Matt Bonner won the West with 19 points while Irving had 18 points. Irving took the championship 23-20, which included making 17 of his first 18 shots.

2014 – Marco Belinelli

Four additional money balls were added so players could score 34 points instead of 30. The first round featured Bradley Beal leading the way with 21 points with Belinelli making the finals with 19. Both tied with 19 to set up the tiebreaker, which featured Beal hitting every ball on the final rack to tie. Belinelli made the best round with 24 points to beat out Beal’s 18 points.

2015 – Stephen Curry

Curry won the MVP at the end of the season but his outside shooting was on full display midway through the year. JJ Redick made nine consecutive shots in the first round, but not even his 18 points could make the final round. That required at least a 23, which was shot by Curry, Irving, and Klay Thompson. Curry’s record-setting final round won him the title. Curry made 13 consecutive shots in the final round to score 27 points.

2016 – Klay Thompson

After losing to his other half of the “Splash Bros,” Thompson came back full throttle. Curry made it back to the final round with 11 consecutive makes in the first round. Curry scored 23 points in the final round, which is an impressive score. What stole the night was Thompson tying Curry’s 27 points in the final round.

2017 – Eric Gordon

Gordon was perfect tonight. That was evident when he was the only player to score a perfect rack, which he did two times, in the final round and tiebreaker. He also had the best streak with seven. Gordon had to battle out Irving to 20 points in the final round and then he outshot Irving in the tiebreaker 21-18 to win the title.

2018 – Devin Booker

No player scored 20 points in the first round. Booker and Thompson scored 19 points while Tobias Harris snuck into the final round with 18 points. Booker was on fire when he made his way into the finals. His score of 28 beat out Thompson’s 25 in a highly entertaining shooting night. The 28 points broke the old record set by Thompson and Curry.

2019 – Joe Harris

Buddy Hield and Harris separated themselves from the pack in 2019. Hield scored 26 points and Harris scored 25 points. Stephen Curry made a splash in the end by making his last 10 shots to score 27 points. The final round saw Harris score 26 points to start things off. Hield scored 19 points to set up Curry’s final shot. Curry’s 24 points were just short.

2020 – Buddy Hield

After making the final round, Hield had to step up his game this year. Hield joined Devin Booker and Davis Bertans in the final round. Booker scored 24 points, which topped the 22 points from Bertans to start things off. Hield knocked down seven of his last 10 shots, including draining his entire money ball rack to edge out Booker.

2021 – Stephen Curry

It was a do-or-die time in the end. Jayson Tatum and Mike Conley Jr. saw Curry’s dominance take over. Conley scored 27 points in the final round, which felt like a score that could win him the title. With two shots left, Curry needed to make both to win. He nailed both shots under pressure to become the seventh player to own at least two wins. Curry’s 28 points were tied with Booker for the most points in the finals.

2022 – Karl-Anthony Towns

Towns broke several records on this night. Beating out Trae Young and Luke Kennard in the final round, Towns became the first center to ever win the 3-Point Contest. In the final round, Kennard scored 26 points. Towns set a new final-round record with 29 out of 40 possible points to win the title. At 6-foot-11, Towns is one of the tallest players to ever win.

Source: fadeawayworld