How long is the 3pt line in the nba

While certain college basketball conferences experimented with it in the early '80s, the NCAA didn't universally implement a 3-point line until , with high school basketball following suit a year later.

In the late s, when the ABA introduced the 3-pointer, a generation of coaches had to rethink everything they knew about the game, and it made things hectic. One ABA coach admits that at first, he never used the 3-pointer unless his team was losing late in the game and was desperate for points.

And as a coach, if you have a shooter with range, you have to give him the freedom to take the footer, which is a philosophy that goes against what you learned as a young coach--namely, pound the ball inside.

It wasn't just the coaches, either. The fans loved it right away, but there were growing pains among the players. Michael Jordan is a perfect example of that. He played college basketball at North Carolina without a 3-point line. In his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls, he was 9-for from 3-point range. He never shot better than 20 percent from long range until his fifth season in the NBA.

But by the time his remarkable tenure with the Bulls wrapped up, he was consistently shooting better than 35 percent from 3-point range. At one time, it was only 19 feet at its shortest point. In addition to the players continuing to improve, the utilization of the shot continues to evolve as well. They'd want you to challenge the defense and get the highest percentage shot," Elmore said. I'm not sure the percentages work from that standpoint, but it's a trend. Though the distances differ between all levels of basketball, the 3-point line is universal.

The NBA has a foot 3-point line in the corners and a foot, 9-inch line elsewhere. The WNBA and the international game plays with a foot, 6-inch line. Whereas size was a crucial factor in matchups in the past, the 3-point line gave smaller teams a great equalizer. Shaquille O'Neal is 1-for from 3-point range in his career, that one a humorous bank shot buzzer-beater. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played half his pro career with no 3-point line and half of his career with it.

He was 1-for from behind the arc in his career. More than anything, though, the 3-point line has made basketball a completely different experience for the fans--a more spread-out game with another level of energy that wasn't there before the s. When it's not incorporated properly and not utilized properly, it can hurt a team.

But the advantage is to be able to stretch the floor. With a nod to legendary player George Mikan, Kyrie Irving demonstrates a good way to practice finishing at the rim. With the help of Klay Thompson and Ryan Anderson, coach John Calipari demonstrates the fundamentals of shooting a basketball. This holds true in my opinion with the three-point shot, it is like a layup to these players.

Teams are shooting more 3s than ever. I was watching the Houston Rockets play their second game of the season and they took more than 50 three-pointers in one game. The crazy thing is I do not see this shot selection slowing down. Heck, the Centers are shooting three and doing it well. There is some strategy that goes along with it, the center stays out at the three-point line, the center has now opened up the middle for penetration.

Bringing out the shot blocker away from the hoop. These centers are open when their defender leaves to help on defense. The ball goes to the center for a shot. Many centers develop a three-point shot when they get into the league as their success in getting into the league was based on playing the center not shooting 3s. Centers as of now take a couple of threes a game. But in the near future, I wonder if we can see a center lead the league in three-point efficiency.

As millions of kids around the world want to shoot the ball like Stephen Curry, the problem is that they are sacrificing their form just to get the ball to the rim. Young kids are playing with basketballs that are too heavy and big when they should focus on the basketball sizes for their age. If no lines were there you would have to look back to see where you are in relation to the basket. If they are able to shoot the three you want to be above the three-point line, If they are more of a penetrator, you will want to stay just on or just underneath it.

I believe the three-point line helped every player play better defense. Could you imagine if there was no line, and you are on the wing guarding a good scorer, it would be hard to determine how far away you are from the basket and the angle you are at. The American Basketball League ABL was the first competitive tournament in professional basketball to adopt a 3-point line. They did so in in an experimental fashion.

Although the league shut down in less than 2 seasons, the 3-point line was an instant success with fans.

As a result, the ABA adopted this arc when the league was established in The ABA folded in , but they gave the basketball world an idea that was long-lasting. International basketball leagues also began adopting a 3-point arc in the 80s, with a standardized distance of 6.

They're holding the ball more. You don't want it to become a grappling match. So the league adopted a novel solution. In an effort to neutralize the physicality teams like those Knicks played with, the NBA incentivized 3-point shooting by moving the line ahead of the ' season.

The arc typically stretches to 23 feet, nine inches, but is not uniform. In the corners, the distance between it and the basket is only 22 feet.

The NBA decided to redraw the arcs so that they sat 22 feet away from the basket across the board. In some ways, the results exceeded the NBA's wildest expectations.

The average NBA team attempted 9. A year later, those numbers jumped to Consider Michael Jordan. Never known for his long-range marksmanship, His Airness made only From his second return until the line was eventually moved back, he shot Such growth was a standard feature of mid-'90s stardom.

Gary Payton attempted only 3-pointers in his first four seasons and made only 21 percent of them. In his next three, he took and made The real winner of the shortened, arc, though?