It’s no secret that Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has been a leading pioneer in how basketball is played in the NBA today.
Curry spoke with Vince Carter on NBC Bay Area and was asked whether he had considered how much his style has revolutionized the game. His answer may surprise you.
What Was Stephen Curry’s Honest ‘Changing the Game’ Assessment?
In Curry’s recent conversation with Carter, he was asked about his impact on the game.
Curry said, “It’s just how I play the game. There was no determination or goal of this is the stamp I want to have on the game. This is just how I know I can be successful. Just the last 3/4 years have I realized how much the game has changed.”
The 37-year-old is one of the greatest players ever to shoot a basketball, breaking numerous records and becoming the first player to have a limitless range.
Curry is the all-time leader in three-pointers made, with 4,187 threes and counting. The closest player in second is James Harden, who’s scored nearly 1000 less.
The Warriors legend holds the record for most three-pointers in a single season (402) during the 2015/16 season, the campaign in which he became the first-ever unanimous MVP.
He holds the record for most consecutive games in a single season with a three-pointer (79) and across multiple seasons (157).
If that wasn’t enough, he also holds the record for most threes in an NBA Finals series (32 in 2016) and most in a finals game (9).
Curry’s emergence and his NBA championship-winning success (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022) have made three-point shooting the focal point of NBA offense.
After the NBA introduced the three-point line in 1979, teams averaged 2.8 three-point attempts per game.
Before Curry was drafted in 2009, and between 2004 and 2008, three-point attempts grew from 15.8 to 18.1, and efficiency grew from 34.7% to 36.7%.
After Curry and his partner in crime, Klay Thompson, had formed the formidable “Splash Brothers” and the subsequent success that followed, the league drastically changed.
Most notably, the Houston Rockets utilized the Golden State model and took three-point shooting to a whole new level.
In the 2018-19 season, the Rockets set an NBA record with 45.4 3PA per game at 35% efficiency. The following year, they recorded 45.3 3PA per game on 34.5% efficiency.
In the 2024/25 NBA season, the league’s three-point attempt rate was around 37.5 attempts per game. It’s grown tremendously from the 18.1 attempts pre-Curry in 2008.
Curry may not fully recognize the impact his success has had on the game, but the stats paint a clear picture of what his shooting has done for the NBA in recent years.
