Highlights The NBA experimented with moving the three-point line closer during the 1990s to encourage more shots from beyond the arc.
That led to lower three-point percentages and lower average points per game, so the league moved it back.
Players like Mitch Richmond, Dennis Scott, Dale Ellis, Glen Rice and Reggie Miller emerged as top three-point shooters in the 1990s.
In the 1990s, hitting a three-pointer was one of the most energizing things an NBA player could do to gain momentum and get his teammates and fans fired up, other than maybe a slam dunk.
However, it was also one of the most demoralizing ways to remove the home team from the game and silence a hostile crowd on the road.
By 1990, the NBA had an entire decade of experience with the three-pointer, and what had started on a trial basis had become a fan-favored feature, an intricate part of teams’ offensive schemes and a valuable part of the league’s brand.
The three-point line underwent a significant change in the mid-1990s.
To kick off the 1994-95 season, the league experimented with moving the line from 23 feet, 9 inches from the basket to 22 ft. This strategic move was aimed at encouraging more shots from beyond the arc and boosting the number of points that teams would put on the scoreboard.
With teams trying to replicate the success of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, a team that found success in a slower-paced game, much of the league went away from a fast-paced offense.
As a result, there were lower-scoring games, and the NBA’s head office believed that fans were not getting an exciting product on the floor.
However, the league made a significant decision to move the line back to its original placement at the start of the 1997-98 NBA year. This move was a response to the decrease in the average points per game after moving the three-point line closer to the basket.
The shorter distance from the rim allowed defenses to close out faster when challenging the three, leading to a decline in three-point percentages and overall points per game.
The average team points per game decreased from 105.3 in the 1992-93 season to 101.4 in the initial season of the change. By the 1996-97 season, it had dropped to 99.5.
As the 1990s progressed, a select group of players emerged who stood out above the rest in their three-point shooting prowess. These were the players you couldn’t afford to leave open beyond the arc, and they could shift the momentum of a game with just a couple of successful threes.
Here are the best of the best when it came to three-point shooting in the NBA during the 1990s.
5 Mitch Richmond
Arguably the best shooting guard of the 1990s not named Michael Jordan
Mitch Richmond was a 6’5