The story most people know about the NBA three-point contest is probably the one from Big Bird Bird: "You're all here to fight for second place?" ”

As for the other thing, there are a lot fewer spectators and fans who may know!

As the god of basketball, Michael Jordan really has too many honors and records in his career, 6 finals without a miss, 6 FMVP, 5 regular season MVP, he also won 3 All-Star MVP, 10 scoring champions and 10 All-Star teams, and even, he won the best defensive player in 1988, and the same is true when discussing various statistics, Jordan's name always appears inadvertently, so fans often ridicule Jordan is everywhere, Michael everywhere I am. That's how Jordan's meme came about.

However, Jordan's career also has some lesser-known or not-so-"glorious" records, such as the one we will talk about today, when he participated in the All-Star Three-Point Contest in the 1989-90 season. Yes, we all know that he won two dunk titles in 1987 and 1988, and the free-throw line dunk also earned him the nickname "Air Jordan", but in addition to the slam dunk contest and the All-Star Game, he did participate in the three-point contest, and even set a record for the lowest score of 5 points in the three-point contest in history.

Three-pointers have never been Jordan's forte, so why did he go to this event?

In the 1989-90 season, Jordan didn't have a championship at this time, but he was already a three-time scoring champion, he could dunk, he could shoot from the ground, he could pull two or three shots in the air and put the basketball in the basket, however, his three-point shooting was not good, and the era did not value three-point shooting, and the average team only made 2.2 three-point shots 6.6 times in the game - for comparison, the average team made 10.4 shots from beyond the three-point line this season. Second, Jordan's three-point shooting is not accurate, although he has been training, but the effect is not ideal, plus his breakthrough and mid-range shooting are so lethal, the three-point is not in the range of his conventional weapons.

However, it was this season that Jordan's three-point shooting rate seemed to suddenly open up, and in the previous five seasons, Jordan's three-point shooting rate was 17.3%, 16.7%, 18.2%, 13.2% and 27.6%, and no three-point shooting rate in a season could exceed 30%, but in the 1989-90 season, Jordan's three-point shooting rate rose to 37.6%, an increase of 10 percentage points over last season, not only that, but his shot became more and more confident. You have to shoot 3.0 times from beyond the three-point line in a game, and before that there were only 1.2 shots at most.

The improvement of three-point strength has become Jordan's confidence in the competition, and if he plays normally, he will never only score 5 points in the three-point contest. But another reason for Jordan's participation in the game may be more profound, and some media even believe that Jordan's participation in the three-point contest is entirely to save the All-Star weekend.

Back in the 1989 All-Star Game, there was no Jordan and Wilkins in the slam dunk contest, and there was no "you are all here to fight for second" Larry Bird in the three-point contest, so the ratings of the All-Star Weekend were dismal except for the main game, unfortunately, the 1990 All-Star Game was held in Miami, and the Miami Heat was a newly recruited team, and the league urgently needed to expand the local basketball influence, but Jordan once again refused the invitation to the slam dunk contest, and he has won two championships, The risk of failure is getting bigger and bigger, and Jordan thinks he's better off playing golf than a slam dunk contest.

It was naturally impossible to invite Jordan from the slam dunk contest again, so the league put the "crooked idea" on the three-point contest, and it happened that Jordan was in a very confident state of three-point at that time. However, at first, Jordan turned down the unfamiliar three-point contest, and it wasn't until the league invited Larry Bird, the Cavaliers' Price, the Pacers' third-year sharpshooter Reggie Miller, and Jordan's teammate Hodges that Jordan was tempted - it was almost the best lineup in the history of the three-point contest at that time.

Larry Bird became a key figure, in 1990 Larry Bird was plagued by a back injury, he played only six games in the previous season, and after his return was not as good as before, his shooting percentage dropped by 5 percentage points from the peak of the 1987-88 season, and the three-point shooting rate was only 33.3%, but he still agreed to play in the 1990 three-point contest with an injury. The participation of the seniors touched Jordan a lot, which was also the biggest motivation for Jordan to finally decide to participate.

Unfortunately, his performance was not successful, and it was even quite "embarrassing", he was eliminated in the preliminaries with only 5 points, and after the first three points were shot, Jordan only scored 4 goals in total, and did not score a single flower ball, until the last two points, Jordan had completely abandoned the game. The audience laughed at this, but the league still gave him high praise: "Michael is not a pure three-pointer, but he is still here to make Miami and the world feel the charm of this event, participation is victory." ”

All in all, there are actually a lot of stories behind Jordan's participation in the three-point contest, he was the most popular star in the league at that time, and he had great popularity at any time, and the NBA did get a lot of promotion because of Jordan's appearance, which is also Jordan's charm. As for the record for the lowest three-point contest score, it can only be said that it is an interesting story of Jordan's career, not to mention, he does not need a three-point shot to still dominate the league.

The NBA All-Star Game began in 1986 with the establishment of the three-point shooting contest, and a total of 24 players have won the championship. Of these, 18 players have won the championship once, 4 players have won the championship twice, and 2 players have won the championship three times.

Worth mentioning, of course, is Larry Bird... The three-point shooting contest was established in 1986, and Bird won three consecutive championships. It has to be said that Bird's long-range shooting skills are delicate and have a high hit rate. Foreign hands open their bows and wear Yang in a hundred steps. In addition to the three-time championship, he also left that arrogant allusion. In the lounge before the start of the long throw competition, Bird staggered in and said the classic sentence to the other players... You've discussed who won't take the second place, and I've already booked the first one in advance.

It is also worth mentioning that Reggie Miller, the league's famous sharpshooter, participated in a total of four three-point tournaments and did not win the championship.

There is also a famous marksman in the league, Korver, who has participated in 3 editions and has not won the championship.

Another sharpshooter who almost became one of them is the league's No. 1 three-point master, Curry, who has participated in a total of 5 three-point shooting contests so far, and finally won the championship in 15 years!

And the other one of the Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson... Beginning in 2015, Klay was invited to participate in the All-Star Three-Point Contest for four consecutive All-Star games. In '16, Klay defeated Curry, Harden and others to win the championship.