The NBA and WNBA All-Star events have seen a slight overhaul in recent years. With increasing sponsorships, NBA salaries, and a decrease in fans’ attention spans, the NBA All-Star Game in particular has failure in terms of audience and global cultural resonance. It’s difficult to get players to compete at 100% when they are afraid of getting injured and there is little incentive to do so. Especially when it comes to events like the 3-point shooting contest, skills competition, or whatever event the NBA is trying to come up with to change things up. WNBA players can of course be motivated by $25,000 prizes, given that their salaries are lower than those of NBA players, but NBA players are too well compensated to really care about that sort of thing.
A few years ago, the NBA took a big step forward in re-engaging fans in All-Star events by hosting a shooting contest between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu in 2024. While some “battle of the sexes” type events can quickly degenerate into questionable territory, ripe for sexist takes online and poor analysis, this event was actually pretty well done. Ionescu and Curry are two of the best shooters in the history of the sport, and also great friends. So there was a mutual respect that was evident throughout the preparations for the event and the event itself.
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Since this was a standard 3-point shooting contest, it wasn’t like Ionescu was at a huge disadvantage as a woman. She was capable of shooting from the WNBA three-point line (22 feet, 1.75 inches from the basket) if she wanted, but chose to use the standard NBA three-point line (23 feet, 9 inches from the basket) instead – a distance from which she is more than comfortable shooting.
All prize money from this competition was donated to charity, with Ionescu and Curry each pledging donations to their own personal foundations. The event was also in reaction to Sabrina Ionescu breaking the all-time 3-point record, NBA or WNBA, in the previous year’s WNBA All-Star Game. At the time, fans wondered how Ionescu would fare against the best shooters in the NBA – this event gave them what they wanted.
The event was a huge success, achieving the highest NBA All-Star Saturday viewership in over five years, with over 5 million viewers. It outperformed the weekend’s main event, the actual All-Star Game, and viewership peaked at that particular event. While Ionescu lost to Curry 29-26, her 26 points matched the true winner of that year’s NBA 3-point shooting contest, and while she certainly didn’t need to earn the respect of the NBA contingent, she did.
Afterwards, many people expressed real interest and enthusiasm in repeating the event. At the time, Caitlin Clark was still in college, but fans were frothing at the thought of seeing her compete in a 3-point contest. There were ideas of Steph and Sabrina taking on Clark and another NBA shooting star like Damian Lillard. Yet years later, none of this has come to fruition.
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Additionally, two seasons into her career, Caitlin Clark has yet to compete in a 3-point contest.
In the summer of 2024, Ionescu withdrew from the WNBA All-Star 3-point contest to focus more on the upcoming Paris Olympics the following week – super fair. The same year, Clark also declined an invitation to the competition, saying she wanted to rest after playing more than a year straight of basketball.
As for the next NBA All-Star Game in 2025, Clark declined an invitation from the NBA to participate. According to a report from The AthleticClark wanted her first WNBA All-Star 3-point shooting contest to be in the WNBA.
The 2025 WNBA All-Star Game took place at Clark’s WNBA home in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she plays with the Indiana Fever. A perfect place to make his first appearance in the event, but those hopes were dashed as Clark suffered numerous injuries in the summer of 2025, causing him to miss most of the season and the All-Star Game.
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Now, as we head into the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, the Steph vs. Sabrina hype is two years old and nothing to replace it. Fans would surely show up the same way for a 3-point contest led by Caitlin Clark, which would certainly help NBA All-Star Weekend’s struggling viewership numbers. Yet nothing like this has materialized in the two years since Clark burst onto the scene, and this year was likely impossible since the N.B.A. battles with WNBA players at their next CBA.
Still, it’s pretty crazy that the NBA found a solid way to drive engagement, attract the WNBA fan base, and provide tangible excitement for All-Star events… and just hasn’t repeated it since. Add him to the list of self-inflicted L’s in the Adam Silver era.
