Sabrina Ionescu Confesses Being Torn On Following Michael Jordan’s Footsteps In 3-Point Contest While Speaking On Future Steph Curry Collab

Stephen Curry might be the 3-point God in NBA history, but Sabrina Ionescu is creating her own legacy shooting the tre ball in the WNBA. The three-time All-Star famously scored 37 points in the final round of the 2023 WNBA 3-point contest. But could she ever top that number? She appeared on Sue Bird’s podcast to answer just that.

“You’ve never done one in the WNBA,” stated Bird, who immediately realized she made a flub as Ionescu gave her the side eye. It’s kind of a hard thing to forget. The Liberty star’s 37 points is an all-time record not just in the WNBA, but in the NBA as well. That said, she isn’t entirely sure if she’d do the contest again.

Ionescu stated, “I’ll probably never be able to top that. It’s almost like is it a one-and-done finish on top? Or do you just keep going?” To further cement her point, she brought up the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, and how he did something similar in the slam-dunk contest.

“It’s like Michael Jordan dunk-contest, do it once, done, never again. It’s one of those things where I’m kind of torn,” she added.  It’s a good analogy, except for the fact that Jordan participated in the contest two-years in a row in 1987 and 1988. And yes…he won it both times.

What put Ionescu on the map even more for basketball fans was her tremendous performance during a three point shootout with Steph Curry at last year’s NBA All Star weekend. This prompted Bird to ask whether she felt more pressure in the 2024 WNBA Finals, or at the shootout.

“I would say the Finals for sure was a lot of pressure,” she said after a few moments to think.”But the shootout is probably 2 or 3 in my list of ever feeling this type of stress and pressure of women’s basketball on my shoulders,” she added. “If I had missed every shot, I would not have seen the light of day.”

Ionescu certainly didn’t miss every shot. In fact, she put the pressure on Steph by scoring 26 points in her round. The Chef responded with 29, and took home the title, but the Liberty star certainly didn’t make it easy for the four-time NBA Champion. She later wondered if a rematch would ever happen.

“Steph and I have talked about it because I think we’ve kind of set the foundation and groundwork of what this could look like,” Ionescu revealed. “We’ve thought about doing partners. We’ve thought about figuring out a way where we take last year’s championship winners and bring them into the framework that we have laid out. It’s a work in progress.”

The idea is a solid one, especially considering how popular the WNBA is getting thanks to players like Ionescu, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and of course, Caitlin Clark. The shootout was one of the most talked about events of the 2024 All-Star weekend, and there were even serious requests from fans for a part two in this year’s festivities in SanFran.

If it becomes a tradition, a WNBA player will eventually defeat an NBA player in the 3-point contest, which should cause a monumental shift in appreciation for the women’s league. It might not happen while Steph Curry is around, but with trailblazers like Sabrina Ionescu, you never know.