Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionescu will not run back 3-point contest at All-Star Weekend: Sources

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Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionescu will not run back 3-point contest at All-Star Weekend: Sources

SAN FRANCISCO — There will be no Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu rematch after all.

Curry and Ionescu stole the show on All-Star Saturday night in Indianapolis last year with a first-of-its-kind, 3-point shootout between them, narrowly won by Curry, but the two will not run it back during this weekend’s festivities in San Francisco, league sources told .

In a statement, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, “We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment. We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format.”

Sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Curry and Ionescu were not interested in a simple rematch. They wanted to expand the competition to include WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, and potentially Curry’s former teammate Klay Thompson — but when Clark, through a statement issued by her sports agency in January, declined to participate, saying she “wants her first 3-point contest to be at WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis this summer,” it all but doomed the men-against-women shooting contest.

League officials attempted to resurrect the Curry-Ionescu competition in some form as late as Wednesday, multiple league sources said, but couldn’t convince both parties to sign on for a rematch. There was even talk of pushing the competition to Sunday during a break in the reformatted All-Star Game, but that didn’t pick up steam.

The development is a bit of a stunner, given past statements made by the two stars and by league commissioner Adam Silver, and the ties both Curry and Ionescu have to San Francisco. Curry, the greatest shooter in history and all-time 3-point king, is the de facto host for All-Star Weekend as the face of the Golden State Warriors. Ionescu, a star in the WNBA for the New York Liberty, grew up in Walnut Creek, Calif., in the Bay Area. They both hinted at a rematch after Curry narrowly defeated her last year in Indianapolis, and Silver basically said the two would compete again this year.

Curry…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/steph-curry-sabrina-ionescu-not-154607010.html

Author : The Athletic

Publish date : 2025-02-13 15:46:00

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