Where Does The WNBA Go After Sabrina Ionescu vs Steph Curry?

It's no secret that the upcoming three point contest is a huge opportunity for the growth of women's basketball.

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

On the 17th of February, 2024, basketball fans will be in for an extra surprise on the Saturday of the NBA's All Star Weekend in Indiana.

On top of the usual skills contest, three point contest and dunk contest, Lucas Oil Stadium will make history as the first arena where a WNBA player partook in NBA All-Star Weekend.

Between the normal three point contest and the dunk contest, an additional three point contest will take place between Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry and New York Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu.

Curry won't partake in the regular three point contest this year, instead saving himself for his battle against Ionescu, but he is a two time NBA Three Point contest champion, winning in 2015 and 2021. He also holds the record for most threes made by an NBA player with 3,631 (and counting) and has averaged 42.7% from behind the arc over his career.

But Sabrina can shoot too.

After finishing her fourth season in the WNBA last October, in which Ionescu's New York Liberty went all the way to the WNBA finals, Ionescu now has made 272 threes in 105 games. She also broke Diana Taurasi's seventeen year record for most threes made by a WNBA player in a season last year, knocking down 128 of them.

However, perhaps the most impressive feet of Ionescu's is her showing at the 2023 WNBA Three Point Contest, where she left with 37 points, which is a better score then any NBA or WNBA player has ever put up in their respective three point contests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DquTVwX4njo

However, Ionescu has a chance to grow women's basketball next Saturday to even further heights.

Let's face it, there'll be a lot of viewers on Saturday night that have never watched Ionescu play basketball before. And that's okay. All fans start somewhere.

But for the WNBA, Saturday may be the biggest chance to get more eyes on women's basketball they've ever had.

It's not necessarily saying that Ionescu needs to beat Curry to get people to watch the WNBA. Putting all that pressure on Ionescu wouldn't be fair on her, even though it probably would help if she won.

But no matter who wins on Saturday, it's a chance for all NBA fans to see and learn about the talent in the WNBA.

Women's basketball is growing faster then it ever has before. The prior 2023 season was the most watched season since 2018, seeing a 21% increase on the 2022 season. Women's basketball as a whole is also being helped by the growth of female college basketball, which saw a record number of 9.92 million viewers throughout the March Madness Final last year, and it wouldn't surprise me if this number is broken again this year. The upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is also a huge opportunity to grow the game, especially if stars like Ionescu are called up to the USA team.

But next Saturday night? It might just be the best chance of all to promote WNBA talent. Despite receiving an unusually low number of viewers, the NBA All-Star Saturday night was still watched by 4.2 million people last year. And if a similar number of people watch this year, then that's a lot of people, whether they like it or not, who are gonna think about the WNBA. And sometimes, thinking is the first step to becoming a fan.

And if Ionescu vs Curry does well, we could be seeing more and more WNBA stars take part in the three point contest and skills challenge in upcoming years.

So yes, NBA All-Star Saturday Night is a huge, huge opportunity for the WNBA this year.

The competition will see both Curry and Ionescu shoot with their respective league's balls and from their respective distances, though Ionescu did tweet that she'll shoot from NBA distance. The challenge is set to start at 8PM ET this Saturday, after the regular NBA three point contest concludes.