Fansided

The five best NBA 3-point contests ever

By Luke Norris

TORONTO, ON- FEBRUARY 13: Stephen Curry watches as teammate Klay Thompson competes in the three point competition during the NBA's All-Star Saturday Night. Where players compete in three events, the Skills Challenge, 3-point shooting and Slam Dunk at the in Toronto. February 13, 2016. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON- FEBRUARY 13: Stephen Curry watches as teammate Klay Thompson competes in the three point competition during the NBA's All-Star Saturday Night. Where players compete in three events, the Skills Challenge, 3-point shooting and Slam Dunk at the in Toronto. February 13, 2016. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
LOS ANGELES – FEBRUARY 14: Predrag Stojakovic
LOS ANGELES – FEBRUARY 14: Predrag Stojakovic /

4. 2003

Participants: Peja Stojakovic, Wesley Person, Pat Garrity, David Wesley, Antoine Walker, Brent Barry

The beauty of the 2003 contest is the fact that not only did we get a repeat winner, we got to watch the same two guys battle it out for the title in a tiebreaker. This was the first year that the contest featured six participants instead of eight, which made the format a little less entertaining, but still fun to watch. Defending champion Peja Stojakovic made a statement early, scoring 19 points in the first round, a score that was matched by Brent Barry. 2002 runner-up Wesley Person, who had lost the aforementioned tiebreaker to Stojakovic the year before, scored 14 points to make his way into the finals. As for those who didn’t make it into the final round, Pat Garrity scored 13, David Wesley scored 12 and Antoine Walker had a dreadful showing with only seven points and a couple of airballs thrown in there, which the Atlanta crowd certainly let him know about.

While the first round wasn’t as exciting as the first entry on this list, it was the final rounds that made this worth watching. Wesley Person started a bit slow but came on strong at the end and finished with 20. Stojakovic was up next and matched Person’s 20 with two balls to go but missed both from the corner. Brent Barry had a chance with his last two shots to make this a three-way tie but also missed both to wind up with 17. A repeat playoff was set between the previous year’s finalists and then things got weird.

Stojakovic was first to shoot and midway through, a buzzer went off inadvertently, which rattled Peja and caused him to miss the next ten shots. He finished with 12 points but was told that he would get another chance to shoot after Wesley Person took his turn. Well, if you’ve ever been in a 3-point contest, you know that you always want to go second so you know what you’re shooting for and Person thought that’s what he was going to get. It’s not that he was bad by any means in the finals as he still put up a respectable 16 points but Peja was able to come back and score 22 to take home his second consecutive title. Peja’s chance to three-peat was thwarted in 2004 by Voshon Leonard.

Home/NBA