John Clay: Is the 3-point shot ruining the beauty of basketball? Kentucky's Mark Pope disagrees.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — These days, the 3-point shot is getting a bad rap.

Haven’t you heard? Basketball television ratings are down. Specifically, NBA television ratings are down. And atop the list of suspected culprits is the contention that the 3-point shot has become too much of a good thing.

Thus, at the recent finals of the NBA Cup, commissioner Adam Silver announced that the league is studying what effect the increasing volume of 3-point shots — from 39.5% of shots last season to 42.4% this season — has had on the viewing product.

That prompted longtime ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale to praise Silver’s move on X, adding of the 3-pointer, “It has been used too much. It is taking away passing — cutting & the fundamentals that make the game special.”

As you might expect, the head coach of the local basketball team disagrees.

“This is the only thing in the world I disagree with Dick Vitale on,” Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope said recently.

Pope is a noted 3-point proponent. Last year at BYU, his Cougars ranked second nationally in 3-point attempts at 32 per game, behind only North Florida’s 33.2. This year, his first as head Wildcat, Pope set a goal of averaging at least 30 attempts from 3-point range, if not 35 attempts from beyond the arc. Through 12 games, Kentucky is averaging 27.5 shots from downtown.

“We’re not taking enough 3-pointers,” Pope said.

There’s no such thing in the NBA. The defending champion Boston Celtics are averaging 51.1 attempts from 3-point range, on track for a league record. On Dec. 13, the Chicago Bulls and Charlotte Hornets combined to miss an NBA-record 75 attempts from 3. Chicago was 14 for 51. Charlotte was 8 for 46. Two nights later, the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors set an NBA record for made 3s in a single game with 48 — Warriors 27 for 54; Mavericks 21 for 41. Dallas won, 143-133.

The trend has led critics to claim that in both the professional and college ranks, teams have become too “cookie-cutter” and that there is not emphasis on the fundamentals of the game.

“The ball moves faster than any human in the world!,” TNT analyst Charles Barkley recently exclaimed. “These kids today don’t know how to play basketball. We’re raising a generation of dummies.”

No dummy, Pope has a different view.

“I would argue that the 3-point shot is what’s allowing the beautiful cutting of the game,” the coach said recently. “We want to force teams to guard 27 (feet) by 50 (feet), right?

“Look, I grew up as a Celtics and Lakers fan. I’m that old. You guys don’t know this, but a long time ago there was this incredible rivalry, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. They had an NBA 3-point line but most of the game was played at like 17 feet and it was just a slugfest. And it was so incredibly physical. And what these great players have done (now) with their ability to shoot the ball and extend the floor is that you have teams that are guarding so much more space. And you have players with so much gravity away from the basket, so it’s actually allowing the beauty of the game really to be pronounced.”

Pope isn’t alone in his thinking.

“It’s just the progression of the game, the evolution of the game, I believe,” the Celtics 38-year-old Al Horford told the Boston media recently. “My rookie year, I would never have imagined, I wouldn’t have imagined 10 years ago seeing that many 3-point shots being shot. It’s just the way the game is going.”

As such, defenses will be forced to adjust and offenses will adjust accordingly. Pope’s coach at UK, Rick Pitino, was a 3-point trailblazer. His 1987 Providence team reached the Final Four behind a blizzard of 3-point shots. His first Kentucky team in 1988-89 averaged 28.9 attempts per game from long range. As defenses adjusted, UK took fewer 3s. His 1995-96 title team, with Pope as captain, averaged 18.6 attempts from beyond the arc. Ah, but it made 39.7% of those shots, which ranked 12th nationally.

As for 2024-25, Pitino recently posted on X about the NBA ratings drop: “Suggestion, bring back hand checking and more physicality. The players are too strong, too quick and have become amazing shooters.”

Indeed. Why are more 3-pointers being attempted? Because more players can make 3-pointers. Size, position or overall athletic ability doesn’t matter.

On Christmas Day, the Spurs’ 7-foot-3 Victor Wembanyama attempted 16 shots from 3-point range. He made six. For the five NBA games that day, there was an average of 78.6 attempts from beyond the arc. Philadelphia and Boston combined to take 89 shots from 3 in Philadelphia’s thrilling 118-114 win.

“I think the 3-point line is a brilliant thing,” Pope said. “I think that it’s been a real win for college basketball. Moving (the line) back, I think that’s been a really good experiment and I think that we’re getting to see more of the incredible skill that these players are developing and getting to see how teams exploit the fact that you have to guard so much more space. I think the game gets really fun that way.”

“It’s an interesting perspective,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Because in the NFL, people aren’t like, ‘I want to see less scoring.’ They aren’t going to make the end zones smaller.”

So blame the 82-game regular season for the NBA ratings dip. Blame the “load management” trend of players skipping games. Blame the lack of heated rivalries. Better still, blame the absence of compelling personalities. After all, WNBA teams shoot plenty of 3s, and its television ratings are through the roof. Blame all of the above.

Just don’t blame the 3.