[Slater&Vardon] It appears there will be no Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu 3-point rematch after all. Curry and Ionescu were not interested in a simple rematch. They wanted to expand the competition to include Caitlin Clark, and Klay Thompson — but when Clark declined it all but doomed it
It appears there will be no Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu rematch after all.
Curry and Ionescu stole All-Star Saturday night in Indianapolis last year with a first-of-its-kind, 3-point shootout between them, narrowly won by Curry, but the two will not run it back during this weekend’s festivities in San Francisco, league sources told The Athletic.
The NBA’s front office did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation, but sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Curry and Ionescu were not interested in a simple rematch. They wanted to expand the competition to include WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, and potentially Curry’s former teammate Klay Thompson — but when Clark, through a statement issued by her sports agency in January, declined to participate, saying she “wants her first 3-point contest to be at WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis this summer,” it all but doomed the men-against-women shooting contest.
League officials attempted to resurrect the Curry-Ionescu competition in some form as late as Wednesday, multiple league sources said, but couldn’t convince both parties to sign on for a rematch. There was even talk of pushing the competition to Sunday during a break in the reformatted All-Star game, but that didn’t pick up steam.