Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry on Thursday became the first NBA player ever to score 4,000 three-pointers, extending his runaway lead as the greatest long-range shooter in basketball history in a blowout victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Curry went into Thursday’s game needing just two three-pointers to reach the unprecedented 4,000 mark, just days after reaching 25,000 career points last Saturday.
Curry, who turned 37 yesterday, took his time before completing the final few steps of his journey toward a scoring milestone which would have been regarded as unthinkable before the four-time NBA champion revolutionized the art of three-point shooting.
Photo: AP
The Warriors ace drained his first three-pointer of the night late in the first quarter, coolly finding the bucket to move to 3,999 career threes.
That was one of just three attempted three-pointers by Curry in the first half as the Warriors took a 61-51 lead into the break, but he then had San Francisco’s Chase Center crowd roaring its appreciation and giving a standing ovation in the third quarter as he finally reached the 4,000 mark, dropping in a bucket with 8 minutes, 19 seconds remaining in the period to make it 72-63.
“It was a special moment, obviously to do it at home,” Curry told TNT television after the Warriors’ 130-104 victory.
“It was a weird game — I didn’t get many attempts until the third, but the energy was special,” added Curry, who finished with just 11 points.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr lavished praise on the Golden State shooting icon.
“The guy’s amazing,” Kerr said. “He seems to break records or set records every week, so we’re used to it, but it’s still special.”
Curry’s three-point haul is the latest achievement in a career that ensures he will be remembered as one of the greatest players in NBA history.
Before Curry’s emergence in the league, no player had ever amassed 3,000 triples in their career, but the Warriors star has led a dramatic evolution of the three-point scoring record during his 16 seasons in the league.
Reggie Miller in 2005 led the all-time three-point shooting record with 2,560 triples.
Ray Allen would go on to surpass Miller’s record in 2011, before retiring in 2014 with 2,973 threes.
Curry eclipsed Allen’s record seven years later, before reaching the 3,000 mark in December 2021, a feat matched by only one other player — James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers, who stands on 3,127.
Since Curry passed 3,000 it had been a question of when not if he would reach 4,000.
Whether Curry can reach 5,000 remains to be seen. His existing contract with Golden State runs through 2026-2027, but he said this week that he hoped to play beyond that provided form and fitness allowed.
Asked about chasing 5,000 on Thursday, Curry said he had not given it a thought.
“I’m in the moment, 2,974 felt like an eternity ago, but who knows? But now I’m going to stay in the present,” he said.
Elsewhere, the Bucks battered the Lakers 126-106, the Bulls beat the Nets 116-110, the Wizards downed the Pistons 129-125 and the Magic mastered the Pelicans 113-93.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
RSS