On Saturday at NBA All-Star weekend, Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks won his second straight Three-Point Contest. It was definitely “Dame Time” in Indianapolis, as he hit his final attempt in order to edge out Trae Young and Karl-Anthony Towns in the final round.
The contest was started during the 1985-86 season, six years after the 3-point shot made its way into the league. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics won the first three contests, and several years later, the Chicago Bulls’ Craig Hodges became the only other player to win the competition three straight times.
While the Los Angeles Lakers have never been known as an elite 3-point shooting team despite their illustrious history, they have had three participants in the Three-Point Contest over the years.
Michael Cooper
Early in Cooper’s career, he was mostly known as a defensive standout and thunderous finisher at the rim. But by the mid-1980s, he had become one of the NBA’s first bona fide 3-point threats.
At All-Star weekend in 1987, he took part in the Three-Point Contest. He did well in the first round, finishing second only to the Dallas Mavericks’ Detlef Schrempf. But his stroke disappeared in the second round, as he scored just 10 points.
Byron Scott
Scott also took part in the Three-Point Contest in 1987 in Seattle. But he wasn’t as competitive as his Lakers teammate, as he scored just nine points and finished in last place.
The following year, he took part in the contest again, this time in Chicago. His production improved that season, and it showed in the first round when he finished first with 19 points.
However, in the second round, he went cold and scored only 11 points, which meant he narrowly missed the cut for the championship round.
Nick Young
It would be nearly 30 years before another Laker competed in the Three-Point Contest.
Nick Young was a participant in 2017 when All-Star weekend was held in New Orleans. That season, he hit 40.4% from downtown, which was just shy of a career-high for him.
At the Three-Point Contest, Young started slowly, only to get hot during the final rack. But it was too little, too late, as he finished one point short of forcing a tiebreaker to decide who would advance to the next round.
