Steph Curry defeats Sabrina Ionescu in groundbreaking All-Star 3-point challenge

The forever face of the Warriors franchise and the Bay Area basketball’s first daughter each promised to compete, and they delivered.

Steph Curry, the greatest shooter of all-time, defeated New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu in an inaugural inter-sex 3-point challenge at All-Star weekend. The contest turned out to be a masterclass — as expected for the pair of iconic sharpshooters — and a display of sportsmanship, grace and mutual respect.

Ionescu hit her first seven shots and finished with 26 points, matching the high score by anyone not named Curry. Going second, the Warriors superstar registered 29 points to narrowly win the unprecedented NBA vs. WNBA 3-point challenge.

“I think a night like tonight shows a lot of young girls and young boys that if you can shoot, you can shoot,” Ionescu, a Walnut Creek native, said on TNT. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or boy, it just matters the heart you have and wanting to be the best that you can be.”

The 3-point shootout was birthed last year, with Ionescu’s record-breaking performance in the WNBA 3-point contest. She made 25 of 27 attempts, including 20 straight at one point, leading Curry to marvel on social media, “Ridiculous.” Ionescu challenged Curry to a shoot-out in a friendly reply, and the NBA made it happen for All-Star Saturday in Indianapolis.

From Curry’s standpoint, he didn’t have much to gain by facing Ionescu. How would potentially losing a contest to Ionescu look? What could he possibly gain from defeating Ionescu, who shot from NBA distance?

Any number of fairly admirable, fairly likely motivations could then be reasonably projected onto Curry. He cares about growing the women’s game. He wants to be a role model for both boy and girl ballers. He’s doing the NBA, ever-interested in synergy, a solid by lifting up its sister league and adding a signature event to an All-Star Saturday that has gone stale.

It still wasn’t quite “Battle of the Sexes” in terms of cultural stakes, but some bad faith actors are sure to make their archaic feelings known online about the credibility of women’s basketball — and women’s athletics in general. Neither Curry nor Ionescu would ever give any oxygen to that discourse, instead showering each other with praise and respect.

“It was just a conversation around promoting the WNBA, the NBA, merging our two worlds,” Curry said before the event. “I don’t know what’s gonna come out of it, but I think me and Sabrina talked about it like, how cool an opportunity it is to do something that’s never been done before in our game. And for her to have a presence on this stage is gonna do a lot to inspire the next generation of young boys and girls that want to compete and see themselves in either one of us.”

Before the match, each shared pleasantries and introduced their charity foundations. The contest was not just a show of sportsmanship but of philanthropy. It was all about positivity, not conflict and animosity.

Ionescu went first, sinking her first seven shots. She finished with 26 points out of a possible 40 — the same number that Damian Lillard hit to win this year’s NBA 3-point Challenge.

Ionescu then applauded along as Curry approached her high score on the last rack. Many NBA players, including Kyrie Irving and even Curry’s longtime teammate Klay Thompson, were pulling for her. But Curry had other plans. As he’d said earlier, “There’s only one outcome, though, it’s that I win.”

After Curry surpassed Ionescu on the final rack, finishing with a score of 29, they met outside the 3-point arc and hugged.

“That was amazing,” Ionescu said on TNT. “Just to be able to have this be the first of its kind event and come out here, put on a show. But understanding what this means, excited to change this narrative and be alongside the greatest to ever do it.”