The NBA Added Threes in 1979, but Basketball Started Earlier

The NBA added the 3-point line for the 1979–80 season, initially as a one-year trial. Boston Celtics guard Chris Ford is credited with making the league’s first three-pointer on October 12, 1979. NBA history confirms both the adoption season and Ford’s milestone.

That is the NBA answer, not the date the three-point shot began in basketball. The American Basketball League used it in 1961, and the American Basketball Association adopted it in 1967. International, college and high-school governing bodies introduced their rules later. The date you need depends on whose games or records you are looking at.

Choose a league or level to see its adoption date and the context behind it.

The Adoption Date Depends on the League

These dates refer to adoption by the named league or governing body, rather than the earliest experiment with a three-point shot. A conference trying a rule does not establish the national college adoption date, and an NFHS rule change does not establish a date for every school competition worldwide.

League or Level	Added	What the Date Means
American Basketball League	1961	First professional-league use
American Basketball Association	1967	Used from the league’s launch
NBA	1979–80	Began as a one-year trial
FIBA international basketball	1984	Initial arc of 6.25 meters
NCAA men’s basketball	1986–87	National adoption
NCAA women’s basketball	1987–88	Adoption after experimentation
U.S. high school under NFHS rules	1987–88	NFHS rule adoption

USA Basketball’s history of the three-pointer identifies the ABL’s 1961 introduction as the first use in a professional league and describes the ABA’s adoption in 1967. Those earlier dates explain why “the three-pointer started in 1979” is accurate only when the subject is the NBA.

FIBA’s 90th-anniversary history dates its introduction to 1984, with the arc initially at 6.25 meters. That is an international-rules milestone, not a change to the NBA court. The shared name “three-point line” does not mean the governing bodies adopted it together or used the same distance.

For NCAA men, national adoption came in 1986–87, after earlier conference experiments. The NCAA’s discussion of historical tournament box scores places that rule change in the context of reading older records.

The NCAA women’s rules history lists introduction in 1987–88 at 19 feet, 9 inches, following a year of experimentation. Men’s and women’s national adoption therefore should not be combined into a single undifferentiated “college basketball” date.

For U.S. high-school basketball governed by NFHS rules, the adoption season was 1987–88. The NFHS announced the addition in March 1987, as the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s account explains. The announcement and the season describe different parts of the same change: when it was announced and when the rule was introduced for play.

The NBA’s First Three-Pointer Came on October 12, 1979

The NBA’s adoption season and its first made three-pointer answer slightly different questions. 1979–80 identifies the season in which the league began awarding three points for qualifying field goals. October 12, 1979 identifies Chris Ford’s first credited make under that rule.

Use the season when describing the start of the NBA’s three-point era. Use the calendar date when identifying the first successful shot. Neither should be substituted for the ABL’s earlier professional-league introduction or the ABA’s later use before NBA adoption.

The NBA initially introduced the rule as a one-year trial. That describes the status of the rule at its introduction; it does not move the beginning of the statistical era to a later season. The made threes from 1979–80 were three-point field goals in the recorded results, even though the rule began on a trial basis.

This distinction is useful when a historical summary gives only “1979.” That year is a correct shorthand for NBA adoption, but “1979–80 season” is more precise for a season-based statistics table. It also avoids confusing the date a rule began with the date of an individual scoring milestone.

The 1976 Merger Did Not Bring the ABA’s Line With It

The ABA used three-pointers throughout its nine-season existence. When four ABA teams joined the NBA in 1976, however, the three-point rule did not come with them. The NBA waited until 1979 to adopt it.

A team’s move between leagues and a league’s adoption of a scoring rule are separate events. The merger date cannot be used as the start of NBA three-point statistics merely because the incoming teams had played with the shot in the ABA.

That matters when reading a player’s record across both leagues. An ABA three-pointer and an NBA long-range basket from the same year could carry different point values. Both were made field goals, but the scoring rules determined whether the basket earned a bonus point.

A combined career total therefore needs its league context. An ABA three-point total is not evidence that the NBA offered the same shot in that season. Conversely, a player’s NBA statistics before 1979–80 do not capture a three-point bonus that the NBA had not yet introduced.

The distinction is about what the record measures, not whether a player could shoot from long range. Distance alone did not make a pre-adoption NBA basket worth three points. The applicable scoring rule did.

The Line Separates Two-Point and Three-Point Field Goals

Under the NBA scoring rule, a successful field goal from outside the three-point line counts as three points. A successful field goal from on or inside the line counts as two.

The line itself is therefore part of the two-point area. A long shot is not automatically a three-pointer: its classification depends on its position relative to the boundary. That boundary is also why a court-distance change can affect the meaning of a three-point statistic without changing the value of a made three.

A three-pointer remains a field goal. It belongs in overall field goals made and attempted as well as in the separate three-point categories. The separate category tells you how the player performed on those attempts; the overall category combines shots with different scoring values.

For an older box score, start by establishing whether the competition had a three-point rule. A record from before adoption cannot be read as though its field goals were divided under the later rule. The absence of a three-point bonus is a feature of the scoring system, not proof that every shot was taken close to the basket.

The NBA Changed the Distance Without Restarting the Three-Point Era

The NBA’s familiar line measures 23 feet, 9 inches around the arc and 22 feet in the corners. For 1994–95 through 1996–97, the league shortened the entire line to 22 feet before returning to the longer arc.

CBS Sports documents the distance change, and the NBA confirms those three shortened-line seasons.

Those seasons are not another answer to when the NBA added the line. They are a separate chapter in the conditions under which the existing three-point rule operated. Adoption changed the available point value; shortening changed where that value became available.

The corner measurement makes the distinction more precise. With the familiar layout, the corners are already 22 feet from the basket. The shortened-line period brought the entire boundary to that distance. Saying only that “the line became 22 feet” omits the difference between the corners and the longer arc.

A three-point percentage from 1994–95 through 1996–97 therefore deserves distance context alongside attempts and player role. The percentage still describes made threes divided by attempted threes, but the qualifying area was not the same as under the longer arc. The distance change alone does not establish how much of any individual player’s performance came from the rule rather than shot selection.

School-court measurements are a separate comparison. For that boundary, see our guide to high-school 3-point line distance. Do not use the NBA’s adoption year or arc measurement as a substitute for a school competition’s rules.

Equal Field-Goal Scoring Can Come From Different Percentages

The three-point rule changed how many points a made basket could produce. That is why ordinary shooting percentage can give an incomplete picture when the shot mix differs.

Compare these hypothetical samples, each with 30 field-goal attempts. They illustrate the scoring arithmetic; they are not reported performances by particular players.

Shot Type	Makes / Attempts	FG Percentage	Points
Two-pointers only	15 / 30	50%	30
Three-pointers only	10 / 30	33.3%	30

Each sample produces 1 point per field-goal attempt. The two-point shooter makes more baskets, while the three-point shooter receives more points per make. Looking only at 50% versus 33.3% would miss their equal field-goal scoring output over the same number of attempts.

Points per field-goal attempt equals points scored from field goals divided by field-goal attempts. That denominator is attempts, not possessions. The calculation here excludes free throws, turnovers and second-chance possessions, so it should not be presented as a complete measure of offensive efficiency.

Ordinary field-goal percentage answers how often a field-goal attempt becomes a made basket. It does not, by itself, answer how many points those attempts produce. Once twos and threes are mixed together, the point value of the makes becomes part of the comparison.

Three-point percentage answers a narrower question: how often the player makes the attempts classified as threes. To interpret it across eras, you still need to know whether the rule existed, where the boundary stood and what shots the player attempted.

Pre-1979–80 NBA Scoring Must Stay Under Its Original Rules

A pre-1979–80 NBA scorer had no three-point bonus available. Awarding hypothetical threes to that player’s long-range makes would change the scoring rules after the fact rather than measure the recorded performance.

The same caution works in the other direction. A later scorer’s recorded points include the bonus on made threes. Ignoring that bonus when comparing field-goal percentages would discard part of what those shots actually produced.

For cross-era comparisons, establish the league and season first. Then distinguish adoption from distance changes, and read shooting percentages alongside shot selection and pace. Those checks address different issues: the scoring rule, the court boundary, the mix of attempts and the opportunities to accumulate totals.

The usable answer remains specific: the NBA added the line in 1979–80; professional basketball had used it earlier. Keeping those dates separate prevents an NBA milestone from becoming an incorrect claim about the whole sport, and keeps historical box scores tied to the rules under which they were recorded.