Today’s gloriously modern, paced-and-spaced NBA is being taught by coaches who came of age almost exclusively in the 20th century. Which is funny, because when you see 3-point shooting statistics from the 20th century, it can look like the league was just learning how to rub two sticks together. In 1998-99 — a season where Vince Carter, Paul Pierce, and Dirk Nowitzki all played — the Houston Rockets led the league with 6.7 deep balls per game. That same mark would land Houston at 29th overall in the league so far this season.
In some bizarre cases, 20th century teams seemed to ignore — if not suppress — the best 3-point shooters who rose up through their ranks. Some of the best 3-point shooting seasons in league history were followed up by years with cuts in minutes, cuts in usage rate, and even some cuts from the roster. As if the team had graciously allowed the shooter to experiment with that newfangled three-pointer for a bit on company time before deciding that enough was enough, thank you.
Here are the greatest 3-point shooting seasons of the 20th century that were eventually muted by the powers that be. They are ranked from lowest to highest by how famous I say they would be today — if they had only been given Allen Crabbe-level job security and were allowed to just let it rip:
6. Jon Sundvold / 1988-89 Miami Heat / 48-for-92 / 52.2%
Even in this age of hyper-marksmanship, it is rarer than you’d think to shoot over 50 percent from deep over a full season. Even if you count seasons with at just 25 made 3-pointers or more, it’s only been done 12 times. Sundvold was the first-ever player to break the barrier, working as one of the lone bright spots off the bench on a 15-win Miami expansion team.
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Miami was still five years away from its first winning season, but they still found a way to slowly squeeze Sundvold from the rotation. After seeing his minutes cut in each of the next two seasons (while shooting 44.0 percent, then 42.9 percent), Sunvold exited the NBA after three games played for the Heat in 1991-92. Poetically, he took just one 3-point attempt — and made it.
5. George McCloud / 1995-96 Dallas Mavericks / 257-for-678 / 37.9%
One of the more unlikely fun facts from Stephen Curry’s unprecedented 2015-16 season is: with 886 shots, Curry became the first and only player to break McCloud’s record for most three-point attempts in a season.
Two seasons after playing in Italy, McCloud was pushed all the way into Dallas’ starting lineup when Jamal Mashburn went down with an injury after just 18 games. As you can see, the 6-foot-6 McCloud supplemented that 3-point shooting with a healthy amount of work on the offensive glass:
At the trade deadline the very next season, McCloud was traded twice within a week. McCloud played until 2001-02 — when he was in the same Denver Nuggets locker room as Chris “Birdman” Andersen — but never again got up even 300 3-point shots in a season.
4. Steve Kerr / 1989-90 Cleveland Cavaliers / 73-for-144 / 50.7%
I know: Steve Kerr already is a 3-point shooting legend. But it could have played out so much differently. After mostly riding the bench with the Phoenix Suns in his rookie season the year before, Kerr was traded to Cleveland and immediately started shredding nets, putting together the second-ever season of 50 percent or better.
Kerr got even fewer minutes and fewer shots under Lenny Wilkens over the next two seasons despite keeping his accuracy as a Cavalier well over 45 percent. In the fall of 1992, Kerr was traded to the Orlando Magic the next year for just a little second-round pick. When the Magic dropped him the next summer, the Chicago Bulls picked him up. One thing led to another, and now Kerr has six rings.
3. Tim Legler / 1995-96 Washington Bullets / 128-for-245 / 52.2%
I thought it was odd that Legler got so emotional after winning the 3-point contest at the 1996 All-Star Break. Then I checked his timeline: Legler had been with something called the Omaha Racers as recently as the 1995 All-Star Break:
Legler’s All-Star victory was the cherry on top of one of the greatest three-point shooting seasons, ever. Nobody before or since has made more 3-pointers while staying above 50 percent.
What’s even more unlikely about Legler’s season is that his 128 made 3-pointers accounted for nearly half of his career total across ten seasons: 260. Unlike other players on this list, it was injuries that prevented Legler from really excelling in his should-be prime. But just the fact that Legler was roughing in the minor leagues at all is, I think, remarkable: is there a single eligible player who could nail 40 percent of their 3s on the globe who isn’t already in the NBA?
2. Arvydas Sabonis / 1995-96 Portland Trail Blazers / 39-for-104 / 37.5%
Sabonis’ name is universally revered in all corners of basketball. And at the same time, it feels like Sabonis came into the league about 15 years before NBA audiences could really appreciate him. Imagine this clip dropping on a Twitter-savvy fanbase:
1995-96 was Sabonis’ first season in the league, and he got up over 100 attempts from deep in each of his first three years. And then the Blazers, like, lost interest: Sabonis only attempted 64 3-pointers combined across his last four seasons. Still, on the strength of those couple short years, Sabonis is still sixth overall on the list of most made 3-pointers by a seven-footer (although Kristaps Porzingis should pass him this year).
1. Manute Bol / 1988-89 Golden State Warriors / 20-for-91 / 22%
I guess some experiments are too wild even for Don Nelson, basketball anarchist. The late, great Bol spent his first three seasons with the Bullets, firing up only one 3-pointer a year and missing all of them. In his first season with Nelson and the Warriors, though, Bol was allowed to let it fly. Bol’s attempts were nearly cut in half the next year, 1989-90, as his accuracy slunk below 20 percent. Then Bol was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and attempted only 68 3-pointers across his last five years in the league.
But late in the 1993 season, with a new interim coach in place for the Sixers, Bol unleashed 10 attempts in one magical half of basketball, showing us the briefest glimpse of what could have been. If only coaches would have stuck through a few dozen misses as Bol refined his mechanics, we would have seen the birth of the game’s most unguardable shot: