But too many coaches were old school. That season, the shot was mainly used in case of emergency, and the glass was typically only broken for the final few minutes of a game with a losing team frantically trying to rally. It wasn’t a weapon; it was desperation.

The Washington Bullets, who’d made the NBA Finals in 1978 and ’79 (winning it all in ’78), were typical of most, stressing post play and layups. They only had one pure shooter from distance: Kevin Grevey. As for coach Dick Motta’s belief in the shot, you might say the fat lady already sang.

“We never practiced it,” said Grevey. “In camp we never talked about it. Dick never liked it. He said, 'Grevey, that’s a gimmick from the ABA and the coaches weren’t consulted about this. We’re not going to shoot the three point shot. We’re not going to be influenced by this shot, nor are you. Get that ball down low to Elvin Hayes.' ”

Former 3-point specialist Kevin Grevey (left) knew his forte was not a priority back in the 1970s.

The Bullets opened the season on the same night as Bird and the Celtics and Grevey did not get the ball to Hayes.

“First time I touched the ball, in front of our bench, I shot it,” he said. “I looked back at Dick and he shook his head. Well, I was a good shooter, and after about a month we had the ‘Grevey Rule.’ I was allowed to shoot it but nobody else.”

Grevey made that shot and when it swished there was a controversy: Was Ford the first to make a 3-pointer in NBA history, or was it Grevey? Play-by-play from those games is non-existent now, and this was obviously well before the internet, so details are hazy.

“It made no difference to me,” said Grevey, who is “officially” the second to make the shot. “At that moment I wasn’t thinking history. I was thinking Dick would bench me.”

There was no such hesitation on the other side of the country, where Clippers coach Gene Shue gave the shot the green light and red carpet. It helped that Shue had Freeman Williams (second only to Pete Maravich in scoring in NCAA history) and Brian Taylor (a more efficient shooter), as his guards. Also, center Bill Walton was supposed to revitalize his injury-wrecked career and jump-start the young franchise. But Walton only played 14 games that season and the Clippers needed a fallback plan.

“We had set plays for it,” said Taylor. “I’d go down to the corner, catch and shoot it. Gene Shue believed in it.”

Taylor took a league-high 239 shots and made a respectable 36.5 percent. Williams took 128. Curiously, the Clippers were led in scoring by World B. Free at 30.2 points. Although he was an unapologetic gunner, Free was bashful from deep, hoisting only 25 all season.

New shot, but old mentality reigns

Another reason for hesitation among players: They weren’t properly prepared. Even the best shooters hadn’t trained their muscle memory from that distance because the shot wasn’t in the college game.

The NBA game was heavy on centers and almost by instinct, teammates fed the post. The philosophy was to take shots as close as possible, because even in the event of a miss, there might be a foul. Three-point shooters were rarely fouled back then because defenders were trained to give the open 25-footer.

“I must’ve made another 25 3-pointers that season but I had my toe on the line,” said Grevey. “I got better at it over time but I’d be so disappointed when the ref didn’t put his hands up. Nowadays, guys are very natural about it, they step into the shot knowing where the line is. Also, I never took a three off the dribble or contested. I see guys do that now and it’s amazing. That is a hard shot. I was a catch-and-shoot-3, never off the dribble or moving.”

Grevey played 10 years in the NBA and had he come along today, he thinks he’d last at least another five.

In the debut season of the 3-pointer (1979-80), Rick Barry made 73 of them.

“The biggest change in basketball isn’t the athleticism or even the money, which is substantial,” he said. “It’s the 3-point shot, which has totally changed the game, and for the better. It made the game exciting, fun and fast.”

Hubie Brown coached two seasons in the ABA, led the Kentucky Colonels to a championship and, therefore, had a history with the 3-point shot when he took over as Atlanta Hawks coach in ’79-80. Brown was a coach of convenience, though and his talent dictated the system to be used. Those Hawks weren’t built to shoot from deep and Atlanta made 13 3-pointers all season. (Or, what James Harden gets that in a weekend.)

“Our game was also built around defense, getting steals and getting up court quickly,” said Brown, “so we were in transition the majority of the game.”

The shot also came to the NBA too late to be seized by some of the all-time great shooters. Rick Barry’s final NBA season was ’79-80 with the Rockets, and while he had a taste of the 3-pointer during his ABA years, he never bothered with long two-pointers in the NBA prior to that last season.

“It was a new thing and people were just trying to experiment with it and see how it works,” Barry said. “Guys just weren’t used to shooting that far. But I had four of the greatest shooters in the game on my team, Calvin Murphy, Mike Newlin, Rudy Tomjanovich and Mike Dunleavy. If we worked on it and incorporated into our game we would’ve been dangerous, kind of like the Warriors are today.

“The defensive philosophy in basketball then was: make the team beat you from the perimeter, take away the inside game. Well the reality now is not only can some of these teams beat you from the outside, they can embarrass you.”

'The game has changed'

Fred Brown was an even better example of opportunity lost. He had the perfect 3-point nickname – “Downtown Freddie Brown” -- and would often pull up for jumpers a few steps beyond half court with the SuperSonics. The three wasn’t introduced until his ninth season, and by then, Brown’s touch had diminished.

“Fred would go to the corner and he could nail that shot,” said Wilkens, his coach. “Unfortunately it didn’t come early enough in his career or else he would’ve set a lot of records. If a player got hot, you could encourage them to take it, guys like Fred, who was a pure shooter. You encouraged guys who could make the shot, but not the pretenders.”

The Lakers won the championship in ’79-80 and Paul Westhead, who took over as coach after Jack McKinney suffered injuries in a bicycle accident that season. He stuck with the tried-and-true NBA formula: get the ball to the big guy (in this case, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). That, along with the Magic Johnson-fueled fast break, was the core of the Laker offense as they made only 20 3-pointers (out of 100) all season.

Curiously, Westhead was fired less than two years later after the players, led by Magic, complained about the rigid offense. When he returned to the NBA with the Denver Nuggets in 1990-91, Westhead did a 180 in his coaching style. He turned to an unorthodox and frantic offense that leaned heavily on quick shots – the Nuggets took a league-leading 13 threes a game -- but was fired because Denver’s defense couldn’t keep up with the pace.