Which NBA players have made the most career three-pointers?

Kobe was a great scorer, he once had 81 points in a game after all, but he was not a particularly good three-point shooter. He only made 1.4 threes per contest in his career with a 32.9-percent success rate. Most players would be told to cool it on the threes if they shot at that rate. Most players aren’t Kobe, though. He made 1,827 threes in his career to stand in the top 25 for now, but in short order multiple players will pass him.

The freshly-minted Hall of Famer was “Mr. Big Shot,” but clutch threes don’t count for any more than your typical threes. Billups also played during a time when NBA games could be a slog, with his Pistons being a key culprit in that. During his eight seasons with Detroit, Billups only averaged 16.5 points per game, but he made 39.7 percent of his threes there, and all in all he got himself over 1,800 three-pointers before retiring.

We promised interesting and unexpected names, and there’s a good chance you didn’t come into reading this thinking, “I bet Wesley Matthews is in the top 25 for career threes.” And yet, here he is. Matthews entered the NBA at the right time, a time when “You go stand in the corner and if you get the ball shoot a three” was a viable role. For a few years with Portland and then Dallas, Matthews was jacking up over six three-point shots a night. He never made an All-Star Game or averaged more than 16.4 points per game in a season, but Matthews drained enough threes to surpass both Kobe and Billups on that front.

If you are a fan of NBA trivia, and we bet a lot of you reading this are, you have probably internalized the fact that Hield is a prolific and successful three-point shooter. To date, Hield has averaged 7.6 attempts per game and converted them at a 40-percent clip. Sure, bombing threes is all Hield does. Rebounds? Assists? Getting to the line? Not part of the deal! Hield is the poor man’s Steph Curry, but that’s enough that, when all is said and done, Hield will retire in the top 20, perhaps the top 15, of career threes.

Everybody’s favorite men’s college golfer, Smith was drafted out of high school and had an…interesting career. Coming off the bench to do the microwave scorer thing, Smith won Sixth Man of the Year once and finished in the top-10 four more times. Plus, he won a couple of rings because he’s buddies with LeBron (even after that infamous Finals error).

Speaking of LeBron, Redick is now head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers thanks to his friendship (and former podcast partnership) with the best basketball player in history. Redick was a star in college at Duke, but given his cerebral nature, it’s not surprising that he realized he would need to find a niche as a role player in the NBA. That niche saw him hopping around the NBA to shoot threes. One of the most accurate three-point shooters in history (especially when you factor in frequency), Redick retired, having made 41.5 percent of his three-point attempts. That’s one area (one of the only areas) where Redick has LeBron beat as a player.

Will Joe Johnson make the Hall of Fame? And if so, will he set the new floor for NBA players in the Hall? He feels like a Hall of Very Good guy, but as the bar for the Hall of Fame drops little by little, Johnson might clear it. He was a seven-time all-star, and there was a five-year stretch where he averaged over 20 points per game. Johnson made 37.1 percent of his threes, but only attempted 4.2 per game, so it was a piece of the puzzle for him, but not enough for him to be even higher up this list.

Given that Nowitzki’s game led every NBA team to look for a big man who could shoot threes (and if he was European, even better), you might have figured he was higher on this list. To which we say, he’s still in the top 20 and made 1,982 threes! Give him a break! Dirk shot a lot of threes for a seven-footer, but he actually only attempted 3.4 treys per contest. That was over a two-decade career with the Mavericks, of course. Dirk won an MVP, a ring, and opened the door for Darko Milicic and Andrea Bargnani to be top-three picks. Whoops!

Kidd’s career saw him make an incredible turnaround. The joke early in his career was that he was “Ason” Kidd because he had no J(umper). He was a great passer, a high-level defender, and an excellent rebounder for a point guard, but shooting wasn’t his thing. Then, over the second half of his career, Kidd became, well, an average shooter, but that was quite an improvement for him! Over the last nine seasons of his career, the Hall of Famer attempted 4.6 threes per game and made 36.9 percent of them. For comparison’s sake, over the first seven seasons of Kidd’s career he attempted 3.2 threes per contest and made 32.3 percent.

We cross the threshold into players with over 2,000 career threes with an active player. Early in his career Gordon shot some threes and once averaged 22.3 points per game with the Clippers. Then, he went to the Rockets at exactly the right time. You know, when Mike D’Antoni was there. For four seasons in a row Gordon got to take over eight three-points per game. Once he was Sixth Man of the year, and once he was runner up.

Durant is an all-time great, an inner-circle Hall of Famer. He’s an elite scorer, as his four scoring titles make clear. However, the seven-footer is also an elite shooter. Durant is one of the members of the 50/40/90 Club, and he took on a larger role in the offense than other members of that club. With his skills, there’s still time for him to climb up this list.

With the way Antoine Walker chucked it, Pierce seemed like a sharpshooter by comparison in his early days with the Celtics. Pierce did make 36.8 percent of his threes, so he was not a chucker, though he was a multi-level scorer. He made 10 All-Star Games and averaged 21.8 points per game as a Celtic due to his ability to get buckets all over the court, and his ability to get to the line. Thanks to a lengthy career, Pierce made 2,143 threes.

Lowry took a little while to get going in his NBA career. He struggled with the Grizzlies and barely attempted threes, or even twos. Lowry found his footing with Houston, but it is with Toronto he soared. There he made six All-Star Games and attempted 6.7 three-pointers per game. Suddenly, Lowry was a prolific shooter! Like Joe Johnson, Lowry is a borderline Hall of Famer, so adding some more threes to his resume would certainly help.

Will being the quintessential sixth man and climbing into the top 15 in career threes be enough to get Crawford into the Hall? Probably not, but you never know. He won Sixth Man of the Year three times and finished in the top five on three more occasions. Now, Crawford did make a lot of threes, but he also took a lot of them. A career 34.8 three-point percentage is far from remarkable. Maybe that keeps him out of the Hall. Well, that and the fact he was a terrible defender.

Someday Paul George will be in the Hall of Fame and he will still be underrated. He’s going to retire in the top 10 in career threes! Sure, he’s the kind of guy that tends to top out as third-team All-NBA, but a lot of players would love to do that even once. George has done it five times (and was first team once). He’s a great defender and an excellent three-point shooter. Does PG have to win a ring to make you happy? Fine, then we hope he does!

You’d think with a nickname like “The Jet,” Terry would be about getting to the rim. Instead, he became a guy who shot a bunch of threes and spaced the floor for a long time. Five seasons in a row with the Mavericks he finished in the top three in Sixth Man of the Year voting, winning it once. Terry played until he was in his forties, and while he never made an All-Star Game, he was the kind of complementary player title contenders wanted.

Now Carter, he was a guy who got to the rim. Dunks will always be synonymous with Vinsanity, and rightfully so. Carter is this high up the list through sheer tonnage. He averaged 4.0 three-point attempts per game, making 37.1 percent of them. That’s pretty good, but not remarkable. What was remarkable about Carter, other than the dunks, was the fact he played in the NBA until he was 43. Thanks to how long he played, Carter ended up making 2,290 threes, which will keep him in the top 10 for a bit.

LeBron is a perfectly adequate three-point shooter. When you are LeBron James, though, you get to take threes if you feel like it. He’s won four MVPs, four titles, and has the most points in NBA history. James has made 34.8 percent of his threes in his career, but he’s taken 4.6 threes per game. You try to stop him. He’s King James.

By dint of his spot in the top 10, Korver can claim being the top floor spacer in NBA history. On four occasions, Korver led the league in three-point percentage. Also, once he led the NBA in free-throw percentage. Talk about multi-faceted! Korver’s job was to take threes, and he took 4.6 of them per game. He made a sterling 42.9 percent of them. That’s 10th all-time, but he shot more than anybody above him.

Imagine being one of the best three-point shooters ever, and spending the bulk of your career playing next to the best three-point shooter ever. Hey, Scottie Pippen still gets recognized as a Hall of Famer and Top 75 player even though he played with Michael Jordan. Klay has made over three three-point shots per game in his career. He’d already be in the top five if not for the fact he missed two seasons and some change with injury. Now a Maverick, and away from the Warriors, he’ll still be taking threes, but no longer as a Splash Brother.

Miller definitely deserves the “He walked so the modern three-point shooters could run” acknowledgment. When the career-long Pacer joined the NBA in 1987, three-point shots were rare. Miller retired as comfortably the all-time leader in threes. You have noticed zero of his contemporaries on this list, right? Miller made 2,560 threes. If we don’t count Kobe as a contemporary, the next-closest guy is Dale Ellis, who made 1,719 treys.

Miller once was the king of the threes. Now, three active players have surged past him and will leave him in the dust. “Dame Time” means clutch threes and shots from the logo, but Lillard has taken a ton of threes and made a whole bunch of them. Lillard has averaged 8.4 attempts per game, making 37.1 percent of them. After turning himself into a Trail Blazers legend, Lillard joined the Bucks to try and win a ring. We’ll see if that happens, but we know there will be a ton of three-pointers in the process.

The pull-up three. If you loathe Harden’s brand of basketball, you may complain about how time after time in a game with the Rockets he’d dribble up the court and then just pull up for a three. He’d dribble the air out of the ball and then shoot from beyond the arc. Harden’s game is not elegant. What it has been, though, is effective. Harden has averaged 24.1 points per contest in his career, and has won three scoring titles. Once he took 13.2 threes per game, and he made 36.8 percent of them. Harden is a Hall of Famer and he will retire second in all-time threes.

After Miller, there was Allen. For his era, he was an outlier. Before Curry, he was the best three-point shooter in history. Allen made 40 percent of his threes while taking 5.7 shots from beyond the arc per game. That’s incredible, especially during the time of his career. The Hall of Famer retired with 2,973 made threes. That’s stellar. It also is a number worth keeping in mind as we move on.

Curry is still playing. Curry has made over 3,700 threes. Think about that. Think about how he has outpaced the history of people shooting the basketball. Nobody else can stake a claim to the title of the best shooter in NBA history. Curry changed the game. He won two MVPs and two scoring titles as a three-bombing gunner. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, he’s the all-time leader in career free-throw percentage as well. Like we said, the best shooter of a basketball in the history of the existence of the basketball.