Stephen Curry entered the 2015/16 NBA season already holding the league record for three-pointers in a season. He had made 286 the year before. Instead of edging past that mark, he reached 402—an increase of 116 and the first 400-three season in NBA history.
A record broken months before the finish
Curry’s pace was so extreme that he passed his old record in February, with weeks of regular-season basketball still remaining. In an overtime game at Oklahoma City on 27 February 2016, he tied the then-record for threes in a game with 12. The last was a long game-winner with less than a second left. An NBA review of Curry’s milestones notes that his 11th three that night moved him beyond 286 for the season.
He continued adding to the total and finished with 402 makes in 79 games. The NBA’s official MVP announcement records 402 three-pointers from 886 attempts, a 45.4 percent success rate. That works out to slightly more than five made threes per game.
The numbers around 402
The shooting record was only one part of Curry’s season. He led the league in scoring at 30.1 points per game, in steals at 2.14 per game and in free-throw percentage at 90.8 percent. He shot 50.4 percent from the field overall while averaging 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds.
Golden State also made history as a team. The Warriors finished 73–9, setting a league record for regular-season wins at the time, and opened the campaign with 24 consecutive victories. The NBA’s 2015/16 season review confirms both the 73 wins and Curry’s status as the first player to surpass 400 threes.
The jump becomes clearer when placed beside his own previous marks. Curry set a record with 272 threes in 2012/13, then raised it to 286 in 2014/15. Reaching 402 meant adding more to the record in one season than many high-volume shooters make in a substantial portion of a year. ESPN’s contemporary report described the new total as a shattering of his previous record.
A unanimous finish
Voters responded with another first. Curry received all 131 first-place votes for the Most Valuable Player award, becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. The total included 130 media ballots and one fan vote. He also became the 11th player to win consecutive MVP awards.
The Finals ended with Cleveland winning the championship, so Curry’s remarkable regular season did not produce a second straight title. That does not change the scale of the shooting achievement. He began the season as the record holder, exceeded his own mark by 116, crossed a threshold nobody had reached and paired it with the league’s first unanimous MVP vote.
Sources and further reading
- NBA Communications: 2015/16 MVP announcement
- NBA: 2015/16 season review
- ESPN: Curry wins unanimous MVP
- Associated Press via ESPN: unanimous MVP vote
