A marksman who doesn't like to shoot

Larry Bird's shooting is a spectacle, and the three-point shot is no problem for him, but the legendary superstar rarely practices his long-range shots, and he doesn't even like and doesn't often try them in games. Until the age of 30, Bird had not averaged more than three three-point attempts per game in a season.

"I remember back then, if somebody was standing outside the three-point line, you weren't even going to chase it out." Bird recalled, "Vote, we didn't guard against that position at all, and bet they wouldn't dare to vote." ”

In the 1980-81 season, when the Celtics won the championship, they attempted 241 three-pointers in the regular season, which ranked second in the league -- for comparison, Curry made 242 three-pointers by himself this season just after All-Star weekend.

ML Karl, who played for the Green Army at the time, used to play in the ABA, and he reminded his teammates at the time: "Hey, they don't draw that line on the court to look good, they draw it to use it." At Karl's reminder, the Celtics began to gradually increase their emphasis on the three-point shot. For the next five seasons, they ranked in the top 10 in the league in three-point shooting, reaching the Finals four years in a row.

In the 1986-87 season, Bird ranked first in the league with a total of 90 three-point attempts. The following year, Danny Angie scored a total of 148 goals. The two of them combined their swords, making the alliance powerhouses overwhelmed with one or the other. But like Riley, Bird doesn't use the three-point shot as a conventional weapon.

"If we're only one point ahead, or we're tied or one point down, we're going to try to shoot a three-pointer." "I like the way it is like a fatal blow, where you look at the opponent after the goal and they hang their heads and usually ask for a timeout right away, and their coach looks like he's crazy," Bird said. ”

"It's really funny," Bird continued, "I've never even practiced threes, we only throw two once in a while. The only practice was before the start of the three-point contest in 1988. Danny [Angie] dragged the rack out and we picked up each other's rebounds and practiced for a while. But we're not going to shoot 100 threes after every workout. ”

Pitino's explosive weapon

Rick Pitino's rise to fame began with the Providence Friars in the NCAA. Before Pitino took over the college basketball team, they had just finished bottom of the Great East Division. "I was new and of course, there was no hope and there was no talent in the team," Pitino recalled, "and I needed some tricks to turn things around. ”

In the beginning, Pitino went on a frantic full-court press-and-roll defense, which paid off, with a 17-14 record in their first season. Immediately after that, Pitino began a new attempt, that is, the three-point shot.

"When the three-point shot was introduced, I decided to tell my team that we were going to lead the nation in three-point shooting." "We're going to shoot 15 threes a game and be the number one in the country," Pitino said. ”

However, Pitino soon found that 15 three-pointers per game was not enough to win them, so he increased his requirements to 25 or 35 ....... Such a crazy performance completely subverted the traditional concept of basketball, and the Friars also played a 25-9 record and made it all the way to the final four as the No. 6 seed, which is a good story in basketball history.

After that, Pitino was invited to be the head coach of the NBA's New York Knicks, bringing the team that had been the second-lowest team the previous season into the playoffs. That season, despite not having a top shooter on the team, the Knicks still ranked third in the league in three-point shooting.

In Pitino's second season at the helm of the Knicks, they led the likes of Johnny Newman, Trent Tucker, Gerard Wilkins and Mark Jackson to make the most three-pointers in the league, with a total of 1,147 that was more than double the league average and set an NBA all-time record (the previous record was 705). This year, the Knicks' record improved to 52-30, and in the first round of the playoffs, they eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers led by Charles Barkley, but faced the surging Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the second round, and still lost regrettably.