Last night I was invited to play basketball with some friends at a church in Provo, it was a pretty relaxed environment where most of the guys were all members of the same young married ward. We started out with the usual “who’s guarding who” and determining what score we would be playing to. I suggested the standard 2’s and 3’s to 15, which was immediately opposed to by a large man in a small Utah State shirt, with sleeves that had carefully been removed, insisting that we play 1’s and 2’s to 11. Answering back, I tried to explain that if we play 1’s and 2’s the three ball is worth double any other shot, so I prefer to play 2’s and 3’s. His response was that this is only true if we are playing “timed basketball”, and that “it takes exactly the same amount of shots anyways”. Now, this post is not about this young Aggie’s inability to do math, nor is it about how the only people who play 1’s and 2’s of “timed basketball” are probably featured on some kind of And1 mixtape somewhere, no, this post is about the importance of the three ball and that it should be, as intended and named, worth three points.

I know what some of you are probably thinking, “Volley, look, you should be all for this. You hate posting up, you hardly ever drive to the basket, the three pointer is pretty much all that you have going for you. Having that three pointer be worth double only plays to your advantage.” That might all be true, but this isn’t about me, this is way bigger than me. Imagine we lived in a world where basketball was always played by 1’s and 2’s. What then is a free throw worth, one point? I can’t accept that this,



and this,



could potentially be worth the same amount of points. The other option would be that the free throw is worth half of a point. This also would be ridiculous, imagine Deandre Jordan getting intentionally fouled 10 times a game, while shooting about 40 percent from the line he would make about 8 of the 20 shots. We would have to suffer through all these fouls shots just to watch the Clippers score 4 points. Is that what you want basketball to become?

Another thing, there is no cool celebration for scoring two points. How would goofy white dudes make “three goggles” after banking in a three, hold down their index and middle fingers while awkwardly just sticking out the ring and pinky fingers? No, there would be no “three goggles” in basketball, imagine that.



There would be no Russell Westbrook three pointer finger guns,



No Melo three to the head,



You think Steph is going to do this,



if that is only worth two points? No, he wouldn’t. The three ball is beautiful. Don’t take that away from me. Don’t make me start adding up fractions for the score, we don’t need cool new celebrations for a deep two. The three ball is so much bigger than that.