“Battle Of The Sexes” 2.0? Stephen Curry vs Sabrina Ionescu Sparks Billie Jean King Memories For 1 NBA Legend

For a first-of-its-kind showdown, the NBA’s Stephen Curry and the WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu will battle it out in the 3-Point Contest at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday as part of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend. Former Indiana Pacers legend and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller will be commentating for TNT as the much-anticipated goes down.

As the D-Day approaches, Miller has a few uplifting things to say about the match-up. Looking forward to it, he attests that basketball “has no gender.” In fact, he is reminded of the historical “Battle of the Sexes” match, a similar ‘man vs woman’ event that went down in 1973. On this fateful day, retired tennis legend Bobby Riggs, then 55, was matched up against female tennis player Billie Jean King, then 29 for a game. Billie Jean won the match in three sets, forever etching her name in the books of history. Her victory is regarded as a turning point in the public’s acceptance of women’s tennis.

Interestingly, Bobby, who had won six major titles and was ranked No.1 three times, had initially challenged Billie Jean, but she turned it down. Another female player Margaret Court took up the challenge instead but had lost to Bobby. This was when Billie finally stepped in to accept the challenge and went on to defeat him. The match would go down in history as the most-watched tennis game ever, with 30,472 spectators in the arena and an estimated 90 million viewers globally.

So, Miller’s reminiscence of this momentous match while gearing up for the Steph vs Sabrina contest isn’t too far-fetched. Essentially, this could very well be the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ 2.0, where regardless of the outcome, Sabrina’s participation could potentially take women’s basketball into a bigger spotlight.

How the King-Riggs match differs from Steph-Sabrina

Although the end goal will be the same, i.e., promoting female sport, the way the King-Riggs match came to be is completely different from that of the 3-Point showdown we are about to witness. It turns out that Bobby, who was held as one of the world’s top tennis players, had taunted the female tennis scene, and considered it inferior. This prompted him to challenge Billie in the first place.

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On the other hand, Steph, who has always been expressive of his support for women’s basketball, accepted Sabrina’s challenge. After setting a record for the highest points (37) scored in a 3-Point Contest across the NBA and the WNBA, Sabrina had playfully challenged Steph on an X post. A few months later, the 4X NBA Champion accepted.

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So, who are you rooting for? Will Sabrina break her own record or will Steph set another one? Share your thoughts!