Is the four-point shot the next step in basketball’s evolution?
In the last few years, NBA teams, like the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, have been adding markings to the floors of their practice facilities, to help their players be more aware of where they are on the basketball court. The markings include a four-point line about five feet from the standard three-point mark. The late Caloy Loyzaga used to tell younger players that they could tell where they were just by looking down at the floor. But this was when the PBA played mostly in Araneta Coliseum and PhilSports Arena. In the NBA, each arena floor is different, so it would be impossible for players to be familiar with the grain of the floor in each building outside of their own.
With the dramatic rise of three-point shooting, bolstered by the success of the splashing Golden State Warriors, coaches have been belatedly rethinking their belief about outside shooting. This has caused an league-wide emphasis on creating open outside shots, or using them to open up the defense and get big men lay-ups and dunks inside. When Alonzo Mourning came to the Philippines recently to attend the launch of the partnership between the NBA and mobile brand Vivo, he talked about this phenomenon. He said the emphasis on perimeter play and outside shooting made things more open easier for big men on offense, unlike in his day. Mourning was the second overall pick of the 1992 NBA Draft, behind Shaquille O’Neal and before Christian Laettner.
Part of the evolution is a direct result of the European view of basketball. Players are not trained according to what position they may or may not end up playing. Instead, they are all taught the overall skills needed to succeed in the game, including passing and outside shooting. Instead of analyzing their success, NBA teams instead simply imported more and more European players. So when big men like Kevin Durant have what are considered a smaller man’s skills, European players simply shrug. Dirk Nowitzki was doing the same thing long before. And, as you will keep hearing, bigger players can shoot the ball farther. The massive Karl Malone would make shots from mid-court, but of course, this was always discouraged until this decade.
So far, only rapper and music producer Ice Cube’s BIG3 tournament employs a four-point shot. The 3-on-3 tournament featuring eight teams of retired basketball players, debuted in June of 2017. The playing court featured three encircled areas outside the regular NBA three-point line, from where a player could fire three-pointers. In his first game, 14-year NBA veteran Mike Bibby hit two four-pointers. Entertainment and basketball celebrities like LL Cool J, Whoopi Goldberg, James Harden, Paul Pierce, Jalen Rose, Sam Cassell, D’Angelo Russell and Lou Williams were in attendance.
The irony of it all is that the NBA laughed when the three-point shot was introduced by the American Basketball Association. After it was tested at the US collegiate level in 1945, it reappeared as part of the flamboyant, high-scoring ABA’s newfangled bag of tricks in its first season in 1967. Then, the more venerable NBA considered it an aberration. (Strangely enough, its precursor the American Basketball League had a three-point shot in 1961.) But after the ABA folded, the NBA changed its tune, and implemented a three-point line in 1979, as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league. Bird famously predicted his own victory in the NBA All-Star Game 3-Point Shootout. Almost 20 years later, the regional Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) introduced a “free three”, an open three-pointer a fouled player could take in lieu of two free throws.
Is this progress or regression? Bear in mind that, in the 1930’s, players made two-handed set shots from almost anywhere on the court, regardless of distance. Thirty and 35-foot baskets were reasonably common. You didn’t have the distraction of a three-point line, or even a half-court line. Of course, games were much slower, since there was no shot clock, which came two decades later.
All this is seen as an attempt at making offense more efficient, and easier. Almost 20 years ago, analytics was a science that most NBA teams scoffed at. The last decade has seen analytics become a new tool in breaking down the game in fine detail. Traditionally, coaches taught players that a closer shot was a higher percentage shot. But when a group of investment bankers bought the Warriors, they looked at the volume of three-point shots taken in the NBA as a “statistical anomaly”. The reward of an extra point (or in Golden State’s case, a bucketload each game) became worth it. Factor in the fact that players are bigger and stronger, and it only stands to reason that their range should be longer, too.
Since the 1980’s this writer has heard stories of South Korea implementing a four-point rule in practice to encourage outside shooting. Beyond a certain number, every triple made was counted as four points. For the last four decades, South Korea has been recognized as one of the best - if not the best - three-point shooting teams in Asia.
Will the four-point shot eventually add to the lines on the basketball floor? This will be more likely in FIBA competition, since their three-point line is much closer than the pro distance. But that may be years from now, considering there is still the wide, rediscovered love for the three-ball.