Part of the growth of WNBA All-Star from merely a standalone game that may not have drawn plenty of buzz into an entire weekend’s worth of events, has been the introduction of the 3-Point Contest to the All-Star weekend lineup.
This year’s version will include the last two 3-Point champions in Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream) and Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty). It shall also feature Kelsey Plum (Los Angeles Sparks) and Sonia Citron (Washington Mystics).
Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever) was originally on the card for this year’s event given she would be in front of her home fans but will sit out this year’s 3-Point Contest and All-Star Game as she is recovering from a groin injury.
But when one thinks about how instrumental the addition of the 3-Point Contest has been to the WNBA’s All-Star weekend, one name comes to mind.
That name is Allie Quigley – one of the greatest 3-point specialists in WNBA history who recently had her No. 14 jersey retired by the Chicago Sky. In fact, in the history of the Sky franchise, Quigley’s No. 14 was the first to be retired by Chicago and raised to the rafters of Wintrust Arena.
Quigley, of course, also departed from the WNBA as a champion since she was part of the 2021 version of the Sky that brought the franchise its first-ever championship since joining the W as an expansion franchise in 2006.
Throughout the latter part of her career, Quigley became synonymous with the 3-Point Contest at All-Star – and it is why the loud chorus of voices that want the trophy named after Quigs are as on point as she was from 3-point.
When the 3-Point Contest was added to the All-Star lineup in 2017 at the old KeyArena in Seattle, it originally took place during halftime of the All-Star Game itself. Quigley wasted no time establishing herself as the W’s queen of the three by winning the 2017 version of the contest.
Then came 2018 in Minnesota, where Quigley was part of a six-woman field that also included Kayla McBride, Jewell Loyd, Kristi Toliver, Renee Montgomery and Kelsey Mitchell. Quigley had the second-most points in that first round only behind McBride then the final would see both her and McBride all knotted up at 18.
Quigs went peak Quigs in that tiebreaker at Target Center and McBride – even as gifted a sharpshooter as she is – was no match for her. The final score was 29-21 for Quigley to go back-to-back in the 3-Point Contest.
The scene for All-Star shifted in 2019 from the Twin Cities to Sin City as the WNBA staged its midseason party in Las Vegas for the first time. Not only that, but the 3-Point Contest and Skills Competition were held the night prior to the All-Star Game as opposed to halftime.
The field at what was the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas (now Michelob Ultra Arena) included Quigley and McBride as well as Shekinna Stricklen, Kia Nurse, Chelsea Gray and Erica Wheeler. Believe it or not, Quigley was knocked off her 3-point perch as her first-round score of 19 was bested by McBride’s 22 and Stricklen’s 21.
Stricklen would best McBride in the final with the score being 23-22.
Of course, no All-Star weekend was held in 2020 due to the pandemic so 2021 would be when All-Star returned to the W, back in Vegas albeit with strict COVID protocols. The 2021 version of the 3-Point would only feature four participants – Quigley, Jewell Loyd, Jonquel Jones and Sami Whitcomb – no McBride that year.
The first round would see Quigley lead the field with 28 points, followed by Jones’ 27, Whitcomb’s 26 and Loyd’s 18. This would mean a final of Quigley vs. Jones and Quigley reclaimed her 3-Point Contest throne by besting JJ by a score of 28-24. Jones was with the Connecticut Sun at the time so think of that score as the Bears beating the Patriots.
After that, it appeared that Quigley was finished with the 3-Point Contest. Why shouldn’t she be – after all, already won it three times. But, when the WNBA announced that the 2022 version of All-Star weekend would be in her hometown of Chicago, that practically was a bat signal to Quigley to try her hand at the 3-Point Contest one more time.
So she did. The 2022 version of 3-Point would feature her, Ariel Atkins, Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Plum and a rookie Rhyne Howard. Quigley led the field once again with a 26 followed by 24s for both Atkins and Howard. Ogunbowale had a 21, Loyd posted an 18 and Plum finished with 14.
The final round would see Quigley best Atkins and Howard comfortably. Howard clearly felt the rookie jitters of competing in the 3-Point for the first time and only tallied 14 points. Atkins’ 21 was no match for the 30 that the hometown heroine Quigley would muster in front of her home fans at Wintrust Arena. With that, Quigley became a four-time 3-Point Contest Champion.
Since then, the 3-Point Contest is continuing to provide entertaining moments. We vividly remember what Sabrina Ionescu did in 2023 at Michelob Ultra Arena when she posted a 37-point performance in what was one of the greatest displays of long-range shooting in the history of the game. That is still a record for either the WNBA or NBA’s 3-Point Contest.
And last year, Gray bested Jones in the 3-Point Contest after winning the Skills Competition earlier that Friday in Phoenix.
But any 3-Point specialist that wants to do the competition at All-Star weekend hopes to duplicate what Quigley accomplished. And as the WNBA continues to add more years to its history, acknowledging the accomplishments of its previous greats – as the NBA has done by naming its Finals trophy after Larry O’Brien – become only more important.
Whoever wins this year’s 3-Point Contest at All-Star Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse can certainly add that achievement to an already long list of accomplishments. But ask any of the participants and they will say that the distance between their 3-Point Contest win and what Quigley did during her heyday is still a – one could say – long range.
