When Stephen Curry began his career, no player in NBA history had ever made 3,000 3-pointers in a career. That threshold now officially feels quaint.

The Golden State Warriors star became the first player to reach 4,000 3-pointers in his career on Thursday against the Sacramento Kings, adding another line to the résumé of the greatest shooter basketball has ever seen.

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Curry hit the historic shot in the third quarter, with a fake and a feel he has displayed throughout his 16 seasons with the Warriors.

Much more wasn’t needed from Curry in the Warriors’ 130-104 rout as the 11-time All-Star who has led the league in 3-pointers eight times finished with 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting, hitting 2-of-6 from long range and handing out five assists. The victory pushed the Warriors to 13-1 in games Jimmy Butler has played since Golden State acquired the six-time All-Star at the trade deadline.

The list of ways in which Curry is in a class of his own as a shooter feels limitless. He is the all-time leader in 3-pointers made. He ranks 13th all-time in 3-point percentage, while taking massively more shots than every player ahead of him. 

He is responsible for 26 of the NBA’s 104 games with at least 10 3-pointers. He is responsible for five of the league’s seven seasons with at least 300 3-pointers. He is one short of the NBA’s single-game 3-point record of 14 (which belongs to former teammate Klay Thompson), but is well represented on the rest of the leaderboard.

As Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine laid out before Thursday’s game, Curry has been on a tear since the Warriors’ trade for Butler and is currently leading the league in made 3-pointers per game for the fifth straight season and for the 12th time in the past 13 years.

With all that, the question wasn’t if Curry would hit 4,000 3-pointers. That has felt inevitable for years, barring a catastrophic injury. What we should really be asking is if a player could possibly come in and match that list of accomplishments, not to mention the impact.

NBA all-time 3-point leaders

1. Stephen Curry, 4,000

2. James Harden, 3,124

3. Ray Allen, 2,974

4. Damian Lillard, 2,794

5. Klay Thompson, 2,667

6. Reggie Miller, 2,560

7. LeBron James, 2,542

Chicago Bulls fans noticed a rather significant absence at the team’s games this week: its six championship banners. As it turns out, there was a reason for that, and it doesn’t make the story any more normal.

Per the Chicago Tribune, the banners were removed after sustaining “minor damage” during a concert featuring hard rock acts Disturbed, Three Days Grace and Sevendust, which reportedly used pyrotechnics directly underneath the banners.

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The banners are now reportedly out for the season. It might be worth mentioning that Disturbed, the concert’s headliner, is a local act out of Chicago.

From the Tribune:

“United Center is currently working with the Bulls to explore options to repair these banners,” United Center communications said in a statement. “While the banners will not be in place for the remainder of this season, we do anticipate them being back in place next season.”

The United Center reportedly hoped the banners would be ready in time for Thursday’s game, but it turns out the damage was significant enough to take the timeline past the end of the NBA regular season in April. 

Those banners date back to the Bulls championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998. If you need a laugh, imagine someone explaining all of this to Michael Jordan.

Without LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers still have some things to figure out. On Thursday, the Milwaukee Bucks cruised to a 126-106 win over the James-less Lakers, picking up an easy 20-point win at home.

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With James still out with a groin strain, Luka Dončić did his best to take over, dropping 45 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. The stat line was his highest point total in a Lakers uniform, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an early Bucks lead.

Things were relatively close for the first half, with the Bucks getting the slight edge from the start. Milwaukee pulled to a double-digit lead in the second quarter, but the Lakers went on a 10-0 run to cut into that deficit. Dončić hit a nasty step-back 3 to get Los Angeles within two points.

But the Bucks started to pull away again, fending off another Lakers comeback to take a 71-63 lead at halftime. Things only got better for Milwaukee (and worse for Los Angeles) from there: By the end of the third quarter, the Bucks’ lead had grown to 20 points.

The fourth quarter was more even, but Milwaukee’s lead was too big for Los Angeles to overcome. The Bucks ended up with the 126-106 win.

It wasn’t quite the Antetokounmpo-Dončić matchup that some might have been hoping for. Antetokounmpo finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds after a slow first half. While he got his footing, Kevin Porter Jr. led the Bucks in scoring, getting 25 points off the bench — including six 3-pointers.

Even in the loss, Dončić was dominant for the Lakers, getting 29 points in the first half. But he alone couldn’t carry the short-handed team.

The loss marks the third straight for Los Angeles, and the second loss without James. James, who suffered his injury Saturday, is set to be out for a week or two, pending further evaluation. In the meantime, the Lakers will have to find a way to make things work in his absence: The team has four games in the next week, including two games against the Denver Nuggets.

Familiarity must breed contempt because the dynastic Kansas City Chiefs have become America’s antihero of pro football, triggering a groundswell of support for the Buffalo Bills to halt the perpetually reigning champs at Sunday’s AFC championship.

There’s slightly better than a 50-50 chance that the two-time-defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs will appear in their fifth title game in six seasons, much to the chagrin of football fans across the country.

Judging by social media content and sports talk phone calls, many football diehards would like to see someone other than Niners pass rusher Nick Bosa appeared to be held and prevented from a sack that could have iced the game for San Francisco.

To a rational, dispassionate observer, the lack of flags on the Chiefs could simply be the result of Kansas City’s superior talent. And that the missed Bosa hold was just one stroke of luck for the Chiefs, who still needed to pull off several other key plays to complete that Super Bowl LIV rally.

Bowman, the former college football player-turned-lawmaker, said he doesn’t have a problem with the Chiefs getting some benefit of the doubt from zebras.

“Because they’re so good, they’ve actually earned some of those calls,” Bowman said. “I say some, not all, because I have seem some egregious calls (in favor of Kansas City). But no, they’ve earned that right.”

But it’s interesting to note that since Kansas City’s dynasty took shape in the fall of 2019, the Chiefs have played in 17 postseason contests. And in 14 of those games, the other team has been penalized for more yards. There have been more yellow flags against K.C. opponents 13 times, with one tie.

That penalty imbalance has been particularly dramatic in the past 11 K.C. playoff games, when Chiefs opponents have been hit with more flags 10 times, with one tie. And in 10 of those 11 games, K.C. opponents have totaled more penalty yards.

“Yeah, that data — that data’s not helping” dispel conspiracy theories, said Nicolette Aduama, the senior associate director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston.

“I mean, then we could have the NFL disprove them, but I don’t know that they feel like that’s their burden.”

Posted by NFL Memes on Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Not even football is immune to political tribalism

In this era of bitter 50-50 politics, it’s hard to find a common target liberals and conservatives can agree to dislike.

Yet the Chiefs have found a way to draw near-equal hate from both sides.

To President Donald Trump’s hardcore supporters, the Chiefs are an ultimate symbol of liberal elitism, with pro-Democratic Swift leading the way, and herpro-vaccine boyfriend Kelce close behind.

And the Chiefs are no friends to hardcore liberals, with K.C. fans booing racial unity, having field goals being kicked by archconservative Harrison Butker and cheers coming from apparent MAGA supporter Brittany Mahomes.

“You hear, ‘Oh, we just need to get back to a football league of politics being out of it,'” Aduama said. “And then we have this team which has politics swarming all over it.”

The radically divergent political forces aboard the Chiefs bandwagon have the practical impact of keeping the team front and center in public debate. And that’s good for the bottom line.

“It gets the discussion going, then it gets the meme engines going, and that gets all the algorithms going, and then magically the Chiefs are again the No. 1 search thing,” Holub said.

In another era, Green said, a player’s political leanings were largely ignored.

“Because of the immediacy of media today, it is very hard not to politicize things that maybe 20 years ago we wouldn’t even bring up,” Green said. “And I think everything seems to be seen through a lens of identity politics, for the good and bad.”

The Buffalo Bills, America’s sweethearts — for now

Everybody is a Bills fan this weekend 💀

(via twitter / showtymezack)

Posted by FanDuel Sportsbook on Thursday, January 23, 2025

In the factional world of professional sports, it might be hard to find a team that has widespread sympathy and support.

If there is such a unicorn franchise, it might be the “Wide Right” Bills.

Buffalo is among the 12 current NFL franchises to have never won a Super Bowl. No team has lost more Super Bowls, four, than the Bills and the Minnesota Vikings.

Buffalo’s most famous title game loss came on Jan. 27, 1991, when Scott Norwood pushed a 47-yard kick just to the right of the goalposts that would’ve won Super Bowl XXV.

But Buffalo has rebuilt itself and emerged from the NFL wilderness as one of the league’s best franchises and perennial playoff contenders, led by superstar quarterback Josh Allen.

But there’s just one, nagging little detail that prevents the Bills from achieving complete Super Bowl redemption — Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs have bested the Bills in all three of their playoff battles in the Mahomes era. When they met in last year’s playoffs, Kansas City escaped with a 27-24 win at Orchard Park as Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard kick late in regulation.

And yes, Bass’ boot sailed right.

Holub, the University of New Haven instructor, said Buffalo is clearly America’s sentimental favorite right now — though that lovable loser tag could be fleeting.

“You know what? Once the Bills win, and if let’s say the Bills win two or three more times (in the Super Bowl), we’re never going to want the Bills win ever again,” Holub laughed. “I think ‘fickle’ is a fantastic word for it. We always want something new and shiny, a new and shiny underdog every time.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com