After a joke on social media, Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionescu prepare for 3-point competition

INDIANAPOLIS — Stephen Curry doesn’t want to talk about the last time he competed in a shooting contest against Sabrina Ionescu.

They played a game of HORSE in San Francisco, Ionescu said. And you can guess how that ended.

“That’s why I called her the champ,” Curry said.

For the last few years, most of Curry and Ionescu’s competitions have come in the form of backyard-style pickup games. When Ionescu is back in her hometown in northern California, they’ll meet up and shoot around.

This time around, though, it’s different.

“We’ve competed a couple times, obviously never on this stage,” Ionescu said. “But I feel like we’ve always been competing and being able to keep up with one another from afar.”

Why are Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu in a 3-point contest?

This weekend, the pair will take their competition to the big stage on NBA All-Star Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. “Stephen vs. Sabrina” will pit the leagues’ two most potent 3-point shooters against each other — Curry has shot 42.7% beyond the arc in his career, while Ionescu is at 37.7%.

And the idea started after Ionescu won the WNBA All-Star 3-point contest in dramatic fashion. The fourth-year guard scored 37 points in the final round of the All-Star contest — breaking the WNBA and NBA records.

That night, Ionescu challenged Curry to a shootout on Twitter.

Just a couple days later, when posed the question of “Would you rather win a golf tournament or a 3-point contest?” on ESPN, Curry joked about going after Ionescu’s record.

She didn’t back down, responding with, “Let’s get it.” And neither did he.

“She literally came through social media being like, nah, pointing at the ground, I’m right here,” Curry said. “I’m like, I can’t back down from that shot.”

Steph vs. Ionescu: What are the rules of their 3-point contest?

So, the NBA vs. WNBA 3-point contest was born. This is the first time a WNBA player is going to be featured playing basketball during the NBA’s All-Star weekend.

“Having that idea stem from a joke, and now being able to see it come to life and knowing it’s going to be a great experience for us both, it’s exciting to see who the winner is but also what it’s going to mean for basketball as a whole,” Ionescu said.

A full weekend: When and Where is the NBA All-Star Game? Here's what's different about this year's game

Their head-to-head matchup will work similar to the NBA’s regular 3-point contest rules. There will be five racks of five balls situated at the main shooting locations at the 3-point line. On four racks, four balls will be regular, worth one point, and one will be a “money” ball, worth two points. The fifth rack will be all “money” balls, and Ionescu and Curry can both choose which position they want that rack to be at.

There will also be two Starry Range balls from deep shot locations, which will be worth three points. They will have 70 seconds to make all of the shots.

What 3-point line will Sabrina Ionescu shoot from?

Originally, Curry planned to shoot from the NBA line (23 feet, 9 inches), while Ionescu would shoot from the WNBA line (20 feet, 6 inches). Ionescu quickly refuted that on Twitter, pledging she will shoot from the NBA line.

“Personally, I shoot from (men’s 3-point) range, to begin with, I practice from that range,” Ionescu said. “… Knowing that I had the opportunity to pick what line I wanted to shoot from, it was a no-brainer that I wanted to shoot from the NBA line and prove that we're capable and we're willing. It’s not something that took a lot of convincing and knowing I wanted to equal the playing field.”

Ionescu and Curry will also be raising money for their respective charities, the SI20 Foundation and Eat.Learn.Play, respectively. The NBA and WNBA will donate $1,000 for every regular 3-pointer, $2,000 for the money ball, and $3,000 for the Starry Ball.

“Foundation work is vital, another reason of the why,” Curry said. “It’s an opportunity for true impact in a first of its kind of competition.”

In some ways, it’s similar to the Battle of the Sexes — the infamous tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. This 3-point contest comes almost exactly 50 years after the historic match, which was held in 1973.

This time around, Ionescu said, there’s zero animosity between the competitors. Instead, it’s an opportunity to shine a light on women’s sports.

“There's many similarities in just what it is, that I would say it stands for and understanding that obviously it's a friendly match, but there's an opportunity to raise awareness,” Ionescu said. “There's obviously many, many people in our society that still don't give the respect to women's sports and to women in general that that is deserved.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Stephen Curry vs Sabrina: What to know about NBA 3-point contest