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Larry Bird
The NBA added the three-point line in 1979, Bird's rookie year, and he was among the first stars to make it a weapon rather than a novelty, winning the first three three-point contests. As a 6ft 9in forward who shot from deep and from the post, he pulled bigger defenders away from the basket. Teams of the 1980s had to decide whether to guard him with size or speed, and both lost.
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Oscar Schmidt
Born
Brazil's Oscar Schmidt, who died in 2026, is one of the highest scorers in basketball history and never played in the NBA. His 46 points in the 1987 Pan American Games final beat the United States on home soil, largely from long range, and he scored freely across five Olympics. International coaches built game plans around denying him the ball while the NBA still treated the three-pointer as a novelty.
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Dražen Petrović
Born
Petrović was a European scoring legend at Cibona and Real Madrid before becoming a 22-point scorer for New Jersey, shooting well over 40 per cent from three in his best NBA seasons. He showed the NBA that a European guard could be a primary shooting threat, not a role player. His death in a car crash in 1993, at 28, cut short a career that was still rising.
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Reggie Miller
Miller ran defenders through screen after screen for Indiana, and teams had to chase him with their best wing defender for every possession. His eight points in nine seconds at Madison Square Garden in 1995 is the famous clip, but the lasting effect was the off-ball movement: he showed that a shooter running a maze of screens could bend a defence without dribbling.
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Mark Price
Born
Price is often credited with popularising the split of the pick-and-roll, dribbling between two defenders when they both stepped up to stop his jumper. A 90 per cent career free-throw shooter and accurate from three for Cleveland in the late 1980s and 1990s, he made hedging on screens dangerous. Modern guards who split traps owe him a nod.
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Ray Allen
Born
Allen retired as the NBA's career leader in made threes and with one of the purest releases ever recorded. In Boston he was the shooter whose presence spaced the floor for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and in Miami his corner three in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals saved a title. Defences learned that leaving him for a second, even in a scramble, could end a series.
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Dirk Nowitzki
Born
A 7-footer with a one-legged fadeaway and three-point range, Nowitzki forced opposing centres and power forwards out to the perimeter, where they were uncomfortable. That stretched the paint for Dallas and helped make the stretch big a standard NBA role. His 2011 title run, beating LeBron James's Miami, is the case study for how a shooting big man unbalances a defence.
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Peja Stojaković
Born
The Serbian forward was the shooter in Sacramento's passing offence of the early 2000s, and opponents had to stay attached to him at the arc while Chris Webber and Vlade Divac passed from the high post. He won two three-point contests and later hit big shots for Dallas's 2011 champions. He is a good example of a 6ft 10in forward whose shot shaped the whole team's spacing.
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Kyle Korver
Born
Korver led the league in three-point percentage several times, including a then-record 53.6 per cent in 2009-10, and in Atlanta's 2015 offence he ran off screens so relentlessly that defences had to keep a man glued to him. He played until his late thirties as a specialist. Every team that now hires a movement shooter is buying the role he refined.
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Diana Taurasi
Born
Taurasi retired in 2025 as the WNBA's all-time leading scorer and its career leader in made threes, after 20 seasons with Phoenix and three titles. Her deep, quick pull-up made defenders pick her up far from the basket, and her shot-making late in games forced teams to send help early. Six Olympic golds show the same effect at international level.
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Stephen Curry
Born
Curry is the shooter who changed the most: the NBA's career leader in made threes, a unanimous MVP, and the reason defences now pick up a ball-handler 30 feet from the basket and trap him off screens. His off-ball movement matters as much, because Golden State built its offence on him running without the ball. Whole leagues, down to youth level, now shoot differently because of him.
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Klay Thompson
Born
Curry's Splash Brother was the other half of the problem: a catch-and-shoot specialist who needed almost no space, scoring 37 points in one quarter in 2015 and 14 threes in a game in 2018. With two shooters of that level, defences could not trap one without leaving the other. Thompson also defended the opponent's best guard, which made the whole system workable.
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Elena Delle Donne
Delle Donne, a 6ft 5in forward, became the first WNBA player to join the 50-40-90 shooting club in 2019, winning MVP and the title with Washington. She retired as the league's best career free-throw shooter. Defences could not guard her with a centre without being dragged to the perimeter, or with a wing without conceding the post. Injuries shortened her career, the one caveat.
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Damian Lillard
Born
Lillard's range, routinely a few steps behind the line, ended two playoff series with buzzer-beaters for Portland, in 2014 against Houston and from about 37 feet against Oklahoma City in 2019. Defences began meeting him near half-court, which opened lanes for team-mates. A torn Achilles in 2025 interrupted his career; his peak seasons are the evidence of what deep range does.
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Sabrina Ionescu
Born
Ionescu set the three-point contest record across the NBA and WNBA with 37 points in 2023, then went shot for shot with Stephen Curry at the 2024 All-Star weekend. More usefully, her pull-up threes from well beyond the line forced defences to play up on New York's guards, opening space for Breanna Stewart, and she hit the late winner in a 2024 Finals game on the way to the Liberty's title.
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Caitlin Clark
Born
Clark arrived in the WNBA in 2024 as college basketball's all-time leading scorer, with a range from the logo that made defences start pressure well past the arc. Opponents responded with physical denial and traps far from the basket, which in turn opened the floor for Indiana's bigs. It is early in her career and injuries slowed her second season, but no current player bends WNBA defences more.
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