One of the highlights of last season’s NBA All-Star weekend will not return for this year’s festivities.
The NBA announced on Thursday that Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors and New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu will not have a rematch of their 3-point shootout when the NBA’s best gather in San Francisco this weekend. Neither player was interested in replaying the same event again. Instead, they wanted to potentially include another male and female player: Klay Thompson and Caitlin Clark.
Clark, however, declined to participate and issued a statement in January through her agency saying she “wants her first 3-point contest to be at WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis this summer.”
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Even after a last-ditch effort by the NBA this week to convince Curry and Ionescu to hold the 1-on-1 rematch, an agreement could not be reached.
“We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format.”
Curry and Ionescu faced off in Indianapolis last year, with both players shooting from the NBA 3-point line distance of 23 feet, 9 inches. Curry won out by a score of 29-26.
Both players said before last year’s event that whoever won, the loser would want a rematch. Ionescu, who will be in attendance this weekend, said last week to USA Today she’d welcome a rematch if asked to participate.
“Whether it happens this year or in the future, we both have a lot of basketball left, so we’ll definitely get to it at some point,” Ionescu said. “It’s kind of TBD on that. But I am excited to get to the Bay. Obviously I am from the Bay, so my whole family is very excited to be able to see me and welcome me home.”
Given that the Warriors are hosting NBA All-Star Weekend this year and Ionescu is from Walnut Creek, Calif., it’s a surprise that something could not be worked out to have them among the featured events at Chase Center this weekend.
