All-Star Weekend, Feb. 16-18, will be an exhilarating time for both the NBA and WNBA, as superstar Wardell Stephen Curry from the men’s league and Sabrina Ionescu from the women’s league are set to face off in a three-point competition. 

The idea was first put on broadcast by Curry, whose challenge to Ionescu was readily accepted on social media. In one corner, Stephen Curry is considered the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history. In the other corner, Sabrina Ionescu has broken the record for most three-pointers in a season for the WNBA and has the greatest three-point contest performance in both leagues. 

This competition has the potential to leave an impact on the WNBA, which has recently been experiencing more growth as the league received more mainstream and social media coverage. The three-point contest is a good indicator of the health of the women’s league as its inclusion into all-star weekend means that the attention that WNBA stars bring has grown to the level of the NBA. 

Senior Steven Ly said he was unlikely to watch much of All-Star weekend, but that he was, “thinking of watching the three-point contest ‘cause it seems kinda fun.”

Ayush Deshpande, knows very little about the WNBA., “The women’s game hasn’t really experienced as much news coverage as it did for this, at least compared to the men’s game, so I don’t really know much about the WNBA in general,” Deshpande said.

The general lack of coverage has hurt the WNBA, but with this new contest the league could become much bigger.

Sabrina Ionescu knows how important this contest is.“[I want]to bridge the gap and obviously the audience which that game is going to have and the amount of people who are also there is hopefully going to attract even more people to our own game and All-Star games,” she said. 

Junior Rithik Vijaykumar says his interest in the WNBA piqued after he heard about the challenge. “I didn’t know much about the WNBA and didn’t hear much about the league, but after I heard the three-point between Curry and Sabrina I started looking at more clips on YouTube,” Vijaykumar said.

This sentiment highlights how this sort of competition and collaboration between the men’s and women’s leagues can improve women’s sports popularity and the success of female athletes. 

What this contest represents to the WNBA, and women’s sports in general, is a shift that will have massive impacts on sports television and sports in America for years to come.