The best NBA snipers in the history of basketball

In July 1979, the Board of Governors of the NBA voted to add three-point shots as an experiment for one year. The voices dispersed so close that one of the commission members remarked: "One straw was enough for the scales to bend in the other direction." If you look back, you understand that the leadership of the league did not want innovations, but understood the need for any action. Professional basketball was in deep crisis. Television networks did not interest them. Attendance was not growing. The American Basketball Association was on the brink of ruin.

The discussion looked like this:

Supporters: "This will give lagging teams the ability to quickly catch up with rivals ... the game will move to the center of the site and reduce the crowding near the basket."

Opponents: "The basket is a basket, and the distance should not be taken into account."

Today, the arguments of the opponents seem stupid. But conservatives always have a big influence, and only after loud protests from such an NBA giant as Red Auerbach, the association decided to try to introduce a new three-point line for one year.

In the first year of long-range attacks there was very little. The first sniper throw was made by Chris Ford, but he had almost no followers. The best snipers of the NBA of that time did not aspire to take them into service. World Bi Bi Frie, famous long-range shots from any point when they cost only two points, for the whole year scored just 25 three-pointer. Calvin Murphy, considered one of the top scorers, also made 25 attempts, but only one was successful. Teams performed on average less than three long shots per game, of which only 28% were realized. The experiment seemed to fail.

Fans liked three-point shots (especially since they were a rarity), so they decided to leave them in the NBA. However, the players did not care. In the next four seasons, less was scored than in the first year. Almost no attempts were made. From 1980 to 1984, the teams carried out two long-range attacks per game, and the effectiveness was less than 25%. In the era of high-speed basketball with fast attacks and light defenses, the three-point line seemed to be too far from the basket.

Of course, there were several so-called specialists in three-point shots, including the best NBA snipers in the playoffs: Darrell Griffith, Joe Hasset and Don Beuys, who could throw three times a game on the long line. However, even Larry Byrd threw from a great distance less than once per game and in those four seasons sold only 25.7% of them. Such attacks were still a rarity.

But over time, teams gradually began to include them in their game tactics. Byrd played a key role in this.

Around 1984, he realized that a three-pointer shot is a good opportunity. As a result, he (almost alone) turned them from exotic to powerful weapons. Between 1984-1994, the number of long-range attacks in NBA games has quadrupled.

Then there was one more event - the NBA reduced the distance to the three-point line for the 1994-1995 season. The distance was now 22 feet along the entire perimeter, and not as before - 22 feet in the corners and 23 feet 6 inches in the middle.

The percentage of sniper throws jumped. At that time, the best NBA three-pointer snipers: John Starks, who became the first player to quit 600 times a season, and George McCloud, who beat the Starks record by completing 678 attacks. This record is still valid.

When the NBA decided to move the line back, players and coaches already felt the potential for long-range attacks. Last year, almost half of the teams in the NBA performed more than 2,000 such throws. In the new season, their number will be even greater.

All of the above is just an introduction to the main topic. Who are they, the best NBA snipers in the history of basketball?

Technology evaluation is not perfect, but at least it's pretty simple. The basis is "sniper points", which are calculated in two stages:

1. Of all three-point shots should be implemented more than 33%.

2. Out of all free throws, more than 75% must be realized.

Everything is very simple. If the player realizes exactly 33% of three-pointers and 75% of free throws, he gets 0 sniper points. Only balls above these basic indicators are counted as points.

Below you will find a list of the top ten NBA snipers, calculated by this algorithm.

Larry Bird is a pioneer in this field, but he does not get into the top ten, because he played in another era. He was the best NBA sniper of his time, ahead of Reggie Miller, Mark Price and Dale Ellis. There is no doubt that Byrd, like Price, can be called the best snipers of the last forty years. However, they did not score enough points. Also worthy of attention are Craig Hodges and Dale Ellis. But do not complicate the system by adding periods of time and the like.

10. Paul Pierce, 1155 points

Fans have long felt that Paul Pierce is not a basketball player, but a knight of the Jedi order. It's about old Obi Wan Kenobi-type Jedi: battered, tired, grouchy, dressed in a strange cloak with a hood, but very dangerous. After all, in this life they saw everything and know what no one else knows. Paul Pierce is just like that. Nobody claims that Pierce is a pure sniper, but he is the fourth in the total number of abandoned three-pointer and the author of some of the most memorable of them.

9. Glen Rice, 1185 points

Rice was especially effective when the NBA decided to reduce the distance to a three-point line. In those three years, Rice realized 44% of shots in this range, and in 1996-97 he threw 440 times, of which 207 balls fell into the basket. He also won the three-point-throw competition. In the rest of his career, Rice's result was 38%, which is also excellent, but not at all.

8. Peja Stoyakovich, 1294 points

One fan once told a story about watching the game Stoyakovich. He could easily make 30 or 40 sniping shots in a row, and if he did not get caught once, he looked at the ring in perplexity, as if asking: "Who turned on the fan while the ball was in the air?". He spent about 500 matches and on average for his career realized 40% of three-pointers and 90% of penalties - one of the three players in the history of the NBA with such indicators. The other two are Steve Nash and Mark Price, whose results are much less than Stoyakovich's.

7. Stephen Curry, 1353 points

This is the rating for the whole career, so Curry is so low. Incredibly, he played in an association of less than 500 games. If you count the figures for the game, then Curry is much ahead of the rest of the best snipers in the NBA. No one even approached him. Here's what the results would look like in the "sniper points", if we were looking for athletes in the category "the best NBA players in the history of scoring points" for one game:

1. Curry: 2.91.

2. Clay Thompson: 1.91.

3. Kevin Durant: 1.77.

4. Ray Allen: 1.75.

5. Peja Stojakovic: 1.61.

Stephen Curry in basketball is like Wayne Gretzky in hockey. It can be called not just the best, but the person who redefined the very meaning of the word.

6. Kyle Corver, 1431 points

Corver is the record holder for the number of consecutive games, where he threw a three-pointer (127). Therefore, he can be safely classified as "the best NBA snipers in the seasons" in 2009-2010, when he issued a result of 53.6% or 59 of 110. Last year he played in his first match of all the stars and extracted from him a maximum , Scoring because of a three-pointer line seven goals in 15 minutes.

According to the NBA, the most similar to Kyle Corver's player is the striker Armen (Hammer) Gilliam. Some find it amusing, because it's impossible to imagine two more different players than Corver and Gilliam. The latter played in 929 games and did not score a single three-pointer. His result is 0 out of 17.

Another note: the result of Michael Cage is 0 out of 25.

5. Chauncey Billups, 1537 points

Will Billups play in the Basketball Hall of Fame, where are the best NBA snipers in history? Billups was the best player in the Detroit team when she won the NBA title, and also in the Pistons team, which lost to Spurs a year later. He is among the 50 first players to contribute to the win or Win Shares of all time (although it is not known what basketball players think about this rating), and anyone who stands next to him on the list of contenders for getting into the Hall of Fame is likely to be there (Adrian Dantley, Dave Debusshe, Joe Dumar and others). Today, Billups on average gets only 15 points per game, and the last few years of his career he spent jumping from team to team. Probably the next city will be Springfield.

4. Steve Nash, 1677 points

Nash was so good and so often mentioned as the leader in transfers that one can overlook his talent as a sniper. In other conditions, he could score 25-30 points per game. Perhaps you know that Nash grew up in a hockey environment - he was nursed by the future NHL champion Russell Kurtnell. Play basketball Steve began only at the age of thirteen. But he was so engrossed and focused that by the time he entered the university, Santa Clara had become one of the best NBA snipers on a three-pointer.

3. Dirk Nowitzki, 1700 points

You probably heard a story about how former German champion Holger Geschwindner saw the potential of Dirk Nowitzki when the latter was still awkward and too tall a teenager. Many people remember the phrase that Geschwindner said about Dirka Nowitzki back in 1998: "He did not have basketball equipment, but he instinctively knew what to do." Geschwindner spent Dirk through all sorts of intricacies of professional basketball, becoming for him a real sensei, but especially the fans was struck by the fact that he also taught his ward such things as playing a musical instrument. Sniper attacks by Dirk Nowitzki look very artistic.

2. Reggie Miller, 2226 points

Reggie Miller did not win a three-pointer race. He twice conceded one point in the final - first to Craig Hodges, then to Glen Rice. But one of the best snipers of the NBA does not make clean shots. What difference does it make how many times he got when no one disturbed him? Miller's talent is how he maneuvers and makes incredible shots when there are somebody's hands in front of his face, one of the opponents pushes him to the ground, and another yells at him. If you need someone who can make a three-pointer throw during a storm, and Stef Curry is busy, contact Reggie Miller.

1. Ray Allen, 2272 points

The greatest master of long-range attacks built his career on the basis of impeccable coherence. The shape and rhythm of Allen are synchronized so well that he simply can not have a bad year. He realizes exactly 40% of shots throughout his career and, in fact, is the same best NBA sniper as at the age of 21 as part of the terrible Milwaukee team, as well as the 38-year-old champion in Miami. The amazing record of 2,973 three-point shots is likely to remain valid for another five or six years, until Steph Curry catches up with Allen.