Joe Harris wins NBA three-point contest, beating Steph Curry and Buddy Hield

Virginia basketball alum Joe Harris attended his first NBA All-Star Weekend, taking home the trophy in the three-point shooting contest.

Kemba Walker, Khris Middleton, Seth Curry, Damian Lillard, Buddy Hield, Danny Green, Dirk Nowitzki, Steph Curry, and Devin Booker all participated in the competition this season. Booker returned this year after winning last year’s three-point competition.

Harris came into the event looking super relaxed and sharp in his all-black track suit:

In the event, each player gets five racks of five balls with the blue and white balls — or “money balls” — counting two points apiece. The participants also have one rack that’s all “money balls”, and they can put that rack at any of the five positions around the court.

Joey Buckets went in the lead-off spot, showing no fear as he rattled off a dominating 25 points in the first round, including going 5-for-5 on his “money rack”.

Only Buddy Hield (26) and Steph Curry (27) had a better first round performances and joined Harris in moving on to the championship round.

In the championship round, Harris again led off, this time scoring 26 points:

Hield struggled out the gate, falling short with just 19 points. Curry went last, needing to replicate his first round performance to have a shot at beating Joey Hoops. He opened hot, hitting his first nine shots, but faded down the stretch to finish with 24 points.

Asked after the event where he was going to put his trophy, Harris said he’d send it to the University of Charlotte (where former UVA assistant Ron Sanchez is now the head coach) as a thank you for them letting him practice there before the event.

Congrats to Joey Buckets!