Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu grew up idolizing Warriors star Stephen Curry years before her days in the WNBA. Curry inspired Ionescu since she was 10 years old — so much that the room in her childhood home, and phone wallpaper, featured the NBA’s most lethal sharpshooter.
Fast forward over a decade later and Ionescu, the WNBA’s single-season record holder for three-pointers made (128), will get a chance to face Curry in a three-point contest during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
The one-on-one competition is set to take place between the NBA’s own three-point contest and slam dunk competition at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday night. It’ll be seven months after Ionescu set the basketball world on fire by scoring a record 37 of a possible 40 points to easily win the three-point shooting contest at the WNBA’s All-Star Weekend. The 37 points easily surpassed Curry’s NBA record of 31 he set in 2021. The Liberty sharpshooter made 20 consecutive shots in last season’s event.
This weekend’s contest is the first of its kind in the pro basketball world. The shootout will also serve as a spotlight to the ever-growing WNBA that features one of the world’s best shooters who currently plays on one of the league’s best teams.
“There’s going to be a young kid who maybe hasn’t watched many WNBA games but is going to watch and tune into this and they’re going to have that dream of one day going up shooting against their idol,” Ionescu said during a Zoom call with media members to discuss the impact of the contest.
“I don’t think either of us really understand — obviously I’m speaking for Steph — the gravity and magnitude that this could take on,” Ionescu added. “We’re just a small piece of kinda just changing the narrative. This isn’t really scripted. This isn’t something that we’re doing to try and check something off the box. It’s more like we’re really excited for the opportunity to do this. From my perspective, it’s something that I could have never imagined being a part of. It’s really organic and nothing about this is done to just check a box off for the league.”
Curry, a two-time three-point contest winner (2015, 2021), acknowledged the impact of the crossover shootout during Tuesday night’s video call. He described the WNBA-NBA connection as “awesome” because the two seasons don’t overlap, giving fans a rare opportunity to witness stars from both leagues compete simultaneously this weekend. WNBA players have been featured in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, but never before in a three-point shootout.
Curry added that Saturday’s competition is uncharted territory and the pair are both “privileged” and “honored” to be the first to do a competition of this kind.
The 15-year veteran has been a longtime supporter of women’s basketball and its goals of growth and expansion. The Warriors will have an expansion team set to begin play in 2025.
“You look for opportunities to just raise the bar on what it means to be a basketball fan,” Curry said during Tuesday’s call. “It’s an authentic competition between two great shooters. We’ve had success in a three-point contest and now you’re trying to level the playing field. Let’s see who the best shooter is on that given night.”
Initially, Ionescu was expected to shoot from the WNBA three-point line, which is set at 22 feet and 1.75 inches at the top of the key. That’s shorter compared to the NBA’s 23 feet and nine inches at the top of the key. After the initial announcement of the contest, Ionescu requested to shoot from the NBA line.
“Personally I shoot from that range to begin with,” said Ionescu, who shot 37.7% on 7.9 attempts from downtown in 2023. “I practice from that range in wanting to be a better shooter or a better basketball player and get better as a whole.
“It was a no-brainer from when it was presented that I wanted to shoot from the NBA line. And continue to just prove that we’re capable, and we’re willing.
“Very thankful that I was given the opportunity and I’m going to capitalize on it.”
The competition stemmed from a joke that now has come to life, per Ionescu. The two-time WNBA All-Star hopes to come out victorious in the shootout, similarly to how she’s beaten Curry in a different basketball competition in the past.
The pair laughed when mentioning a prior showdown in a game of H-O-R-S-E..
“Well, Steph remembers the last time that we played so I don’t know if he wants to talk about it,” Ionescu said while attempting to hold back laughter.
Curry’s response?
“That’s why I called her the champ.”
