u/linkinway

Recently I made a post criticizing 3 pointers as it made the game boring. Interestingly more people disagreed with me than agreed.

So, I looked into what Michael Jordan said about it.

​Why MJ Disliked the 3-Pointer:

​It Promotes Passivity: MJ believed that once players fall in love with the three, they lose their aggressive edge. Instead of breaking down a defense or attacking the paint, they tend to stand around the perimeter waiting for spot-up opportunities

Here's a quote from him:

"My three-point shooting is something I don't want to excel at because it takes away from all phases of my game. My game is fake, drive to the hole, penetrate, dish off,... When you have that mentality of making threes, you don't go to the hole as much. You go to the three-point line and start sitting there waiting for someone to find you. That's not my mentality, and I don't want to create it because it takes away from the other parts of my game."

What Jordan said was exactly what I meant in my previous post, when players see they can score most points from arc line, they won't bother going inside the arc at all, and that makes the game very monotonous. Today like 40%-50% of all shots are 3 pointers, earlier days it used to be less than 10%.

I recently saw a Israel vs Germany World Cup Qualifier match's highlights. While it was entertaining, it was mostly coming from Israel, not Germany even when Germany was the one winning in points. The difference was Israel was mostly shooting 2 pointers and Germany 3 pointers. Every time Germany got the ball, I already knew it would be just another 3 pointer and it always was. Most of all shots they made were. On the other hand, Israel was making 2 points shots going inside the arc. Israel was also playing very well, just that they went for 2 pointers so they got lesser points and Germany went mostly for 3 pointers so they got the lead in points. The times Germany went inside the arc, they did score as well but many times they lost the ball, and Israel took the opportunity to score. That was the only time it was entertaining when Germany had the ball. And, at the last 6 minutes, the game was completely boring because now Israel after realizing they were losing the game, they started focusing on 3 pointers. At this point, it was just a 3 pointer shooting contest between Germany and Israel.

I think this is one big reason why basketball is not as much fun as soccer to watch. If anyone here knows soccer they know that Eden Hazard had his own fanbase even though he wasn't great at scoring but had near Messi level dribbling. I guess, it's not all about scoring.