NBA players and coaches call it the 180 Club. Media and fans often call it the 50-40-90 club. Whatever you call it, this is the absolute pinnacle of NBA shooting.
50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range, 90 percent from the stripe.
So difficult is this level of shooting efficiency to reach that only seven players in NBA history have gotten there. Check out the list:
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call the creme de la creme. Some of the greatest shooters the game has ever seen. Steve Nash did it four times. Larry Bird twice. Incredible.
But what Steve Nash and Larry Bird never did -- what nobody on that list ever did -- was join the 50-40-90 club and win a scoring title in the same season. Meaning, Stephen Curry is on pace to do something that has never been done before. Stop me when this sounds familiar.
As of Thursday the numbers for Curry -- whose 30 points a game lead the next-closest scorer, James Harden, by more than a full point -- are as follows: 45.4 percent on 3s, 50.5 percent from the field and 90.1 from the line. Clearly the 3-point percentage is safe, which is all the more incredible for the volume he shoots. As it stands, Curry is within striking distance of cracking 400 3-point makes for the season -- over a hundred more than the record he set last season.
Obviously, the field goal and free throw percentages are a lot tighter. If this is a club he truly wants to join, which he has said he does, then he'll have his work cut out over these final seven games. If he does it, he'll be the eighth name on an all-time list (well, he could be the ninth name, as currently Meyers Leonard -- yes, Meyers Leonard! -- is also on pace).
It's actually surprising that Curry has never reached these marks in the same season before. He came close last season but barely missed the field goal mark at just under 49 percent. It speaks to just how hard this group is to join that the man most people consider to be the greatest shooter in history has not been able to do it.
And to win the scoring title in the same season is just a completely different level.
Intuitively, to score a lot you have to shoot a lot, and the more you shoot the harder it becomes to achieve these elite percentages. Of course, Curry runs counter to everything we've ever assumed about shooting.
Two players have come painfully close to leading the league in scoring at 50-40-90 in the past. Larry Bird finished third in 1988, but ran into Michael Jordan. Kevin Durant came closest in 2013, when he finished second in the MVP race, shot 50-40-90 and led the league in scoring until the final week of the season, when Carmelo Anthony passed him.
In fact, Durant led the league in overall points that season but the scoring leader is determined by per-game scoring, and because Anthony missed roughly a month with a knee injury, that was enough to drag Durant just slightly beneath Melo.
Curry is almost certainly going to finish as the league's leading scorer, despite missing a bushel of fourth quarters in blowouts. He has an excellent shot at reaching the 180 club, and will certainly win his second straight MVP. He is seemingly making history every week, but this particular statistical quirk, should he achieve it, might well be his most impressive. Again, to eclipse 50 percent from the field with the number of 3-pointers he's taking is remarkable.
We will have never seen anything like it.
Stop me when you've heard this before.
50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range, 90 percent from the stripe.
So difficult is this level of shooting efficiency to reach that only seven players in NBA history have gotten there. Check out the list:
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call the creme de la creme. Some of the greatest shooters the game has ever seen. Steve Nash did it four times. Larry Bird twice. Incredible.
But what Steve Nash and Larry Bird never did -- what nobody on that list ever did -- was join the 50-40-90 club and win a scoring title in the same season. Meaning, Stephen Curry is on pace to do something that has never been done before. Stop me when this sounds familiar.
As of Thursday the numbers for Curry -- whose 30 points a game lead the next-closest scorer, James Harden, by more than a full point -- are as follows: 45.4 percent on 3s, 50.5 percent from the field and 90.1 from the line. Clearly the 3-point percentage is safe, which is all the more incredible for the volume he shoots. As it stands, Curry is within striking distance of cracking 400 3-point makes for the season -- over a hundred more than the record he set last season.
Obviously, the field goal and free throw percentages are a lot tighter. If this is a club he truly wants to join, which he has said he does, then he'll have his work cut out over these final seven games. If he does it, he'll be the eighth name on an all-time list (well, he could be the ninth name, as currently Meyers Leonard -- yes, Meyers Leonard! -- is also on pace).
It's actually surprising that Curry has never reached these marks in the same season before. He came close last season but barely missed the field goal mark at just under 49 percent. It speaks to just how hard this group is to join that the man most people consider to be the greatest shooter in history has not been able to do it.
And to win the scoring title in the same season is just a completely different level.
Intuitively, to score a lot you have to shoot a lot, and the more you shoot the harder it becomes to achieve these elite percentages. Of course, Curry runs counter to everything we've ever assumed about shooting.
Two players have come painfully close to leading the league in scoring at 50-40-90 in the past. Larry Bird finished third in 1988, but ran into Michael Jordan. Kevin Durant came closest in 2013, when he finished second in the MVP race, shot 50-40-90 and led the league in scoring until the final week of the season, when Carmelo Anthony passed him.
In fact, Durant led the league in overall points that season but the scoring leader is determined by per-game scoring, and because Anthony missed roughly a month with a knee injury, that was enough to drag Durant just slightly beneath Melo.
Curry is almost certainly going to finish as the league's leading scorer, despite missing a bushel of fourth quarters in blowouts. He has an excellent shot at reaching the 180 club, and will certainly win his second straight MVP. He is seemingly making history every week, but this particular statistical quirk, should he achieve it, might well be his most impressive. Again, to eclipse 50 percent from the field with the number of 3-pointers he's taking is remarkable.
We will have never seen anything like it.
Stop me when you've heard this before.
Honored to watch this man play