There will be no rematch of the hugely popular 3-point contest between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu at this weekend’s NBA All-Star Game.
Curry, of the Golden State Warriors, and the New York Liberty’s Ionescu hinted that there could be a rematch after Curry won 29-26 last February in Indianapolis
It was confirmed Thursday that despite last-minute efforts to bring back the event, it won’t happen.
All-Star weekend begins Friday and culminates Sunday at Chase Center in San Francisco — the home court of Curry and the home area of Ionescu.
“We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment. We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, per The Athletic.
The report said Curry and Ionescu weren’t interested in another one-on-one competition and wanted to include Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and potentially Curry’s former teammate, Klay Thompson. Clark, however, declined last month, saying in a statement that she wanted her debut in the 3-point contest to come this summer at the WNBA All-Star events on her home court in Indianapolis.
A last-ditch effort by the NBA on Wednesday to lure Curry and Ionescu into a competition didn’t materialize, per The Athletic.
The failure to secure the rematch must have come as a shock to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who, when speaking to reporters in Mexico City in November, foreshadowed Part II.
“They know they’re going to be doing this again,” Silver said, per The Athletic. “They’re looking forward to it. I think as soon as they walked off the court after the competition last year, they said, in fact, they said we need more than one round. So we’re going to be doing more.”
Curry, 36, is a four-time NBA champion and the league’s all-time leader in both 3-point attempts and makes, shooting a career 42.4 percent. Ionescu, 27, is a 36.4 percent 3-point shooter through her first five WNBA seasons.
–Field Level Media
