Historic trajectory of basketball’s 3-point shot

A brief history of the 3-point shot, from its possible inception to its ultimate adoption by the NBA and NCAA. The inventor of the 3-pointer? That’s up for debate.

In 1933, Herman Sayger, a high school coach in the Midwest and a former Indiana prep star, devised a new scoring system: Shots within 15 feet of the basket were good for 1 point, shots from 15 to 25 feet were 2, shots beyond 25 feet were 3 points. Sayger’s system was never implemented.

In 1945, Oregon head coach Howard “Hobby” Hobson, a member of the NCAA rules committee, lobbied for a “bonus shot” from behind a 3point line. A test game was played that year, but the 3 was shelved.

Eddie Rios Mellado, who ran a children’s league in Puerto Rico, created a 3-point line for his league and in 1962 used the line in an international tournament. First use of the 3-point shot in U.S. pro ball: In the shortlived American Basketball League, in 1961. A lamp above the basket lit up with every successful 3. The league was formed by Harlem Globetrotters’ creator Abe Saperstein, after he was spurned by the NBA in an attempt to land a franchise in Los Angeles. The ABL, with a Bay Area team — the San Francisco Saints one season, the Oakland Oaks the next — folded during its second season. First 3-ball star: Les Selvage. He played small-college ball in St. Louis, and was living in Los Angeles in ’61, working in an aircraft plant. A scout for the ABL’s Anaheim Amigos discovered the 24year-old Selvage playing in the Interfraternity Negro League. In his one full season in the ABL, Selvage led the league in 3-point attempts (461) and made 3s (147). The American Basketball Association was born in 1967, lasted nine seasons, and exhumed the 3-pointer. The league’s 3-point shooting star was Louie Dampier, a 6-foottall point guard from Kentucky who played for the Kentucky Colonels. A seven-time ABA All-Star, Dampier holds the league’s career records for games played, points scored and 3-pointers made (794). He finished his career with three seasons with the Spurs in the NBA, retiring just before the NBA adopted the 3-pointer. After the ABA, the 3-point shot was picked up by the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which lasted three seasons between 1978 and ’81.

The 3-point star of the ABA was “Machine Gun” Molly Bolin, who played one season for the San Francisco Pioneers. The NBA adopted the 3point shot for the 1979-80 season. The NCAA adopted the 3-point basket in 1986, after some conferences experimented with it earlier in the decade. The 3-pointer was implemented at the high school level in 1987.