SAN FRANCISCO — There will be no Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu rematch after all.
Curry and Ionescu starred on All-Star Saturday night in Indianapolis last year with a first-of-its-kind, 3-point shootout between them, narrowly won by Curry. But the two will not run it back during this weekend’s festivities in San Francisco, league sources told The Athletic.
In a statement, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, “We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment. We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format.”
League sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Curry and Ionescu were not interested in a rematch. They wanted to expand the competition to include WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, and potentially Curry’s former teammate Klay Thompson. But when Clark, through a statement issued by her sports agency in January, declined to participate, saying she “wants her first 3-point contest to be at WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis this summer,” it all but doomed the men-against-women shooting contest.
NBA officials attempted to resurrect the Curry-Ionescu competition in some form as late as Wednesday, multiple league sources said, but couldn’t convince both parties to…
