Steph vs. Sabrina, the big hit of All-Star weekend last year, won’t happen this year

By Canadian Press on February 13, 2025.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — There will be no Stephen Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu rematch at All-Star weekend.

The NBA announced Thursday that the 3-point shooting event bringing together two of the biggest stars in the NBA and WNBA — which was one of the highlights of last year’s All-Star weekend in Indianapolis — is not going to be part of the lineup in San Francisco.

Talks went on for weeks to try to make it happen, even stretching into All-Star week itself. It seemed more than logical that a rematch would occur; All-Star weekend is on Curry’s home floor this weekend and Ionescu — who plays for the WNBA champion New York Liberty — is a Bay Area native who grew up watching Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

“We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format.”

Curry was on record saying he wanted the rematch to occur, and there were talks of making it a 2-on-2 format this year — potentially involving Klay Thompson, Curry’s former Warriors teammate, and reigning WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark.

The 2-on-2 talks seemed to fall apart in recent weeks, though the NBA had hope of bringing some form of Curry vs. Ionescu back — potentially even including it in Sunday night’s lineup between games of the new All-Star Game mini-tournament and not having it be part of All-Star Saturday like it was a year ago.

“We’ve been talking about finding different ways to change this up next year,” Ionescu said after last year’s event — when she and Curry both made clear, at the time, that they wanted to bring the competition back this year. “I think he has a partner in mind that’s going to join him. So, I’m open to any partner that could help me win and take that belt that he has up front and center away from him.”

Curry beat Ionescu 29-26 in the Steph vs. Sabrina competition last season, the first such him-vs.-her event of its kind at the league’s weekend showcase. The competition generated money for their foundations.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press

14
-13