Steph Curry becomes greatest NBA shooter of all time

Steph Curry made history Tuesday night at basketball's Mecca, hitting his 2,974th career three-pointer in a 105-96 win over the Knicks to pass Ray Allen for most all time.

1. Curry: 2,977
2. Allen: 2,973

1. Reggie Miller: 2,560
2. James Harden: 2,509
3. Kyle Korver: 2,450

"I never wanted to call myself the greatest shooter until I got that record. I'm comfortable saying that now."

The scene: Curry entered the game needing two threes to break the record, hitting his first attempt just over a minute after the opening tip.

• Three minutes later, on a quick-trigger catch-and-shoot, he splashed a 28-footer and the Garden erupted.
• Play then stopped as Steph took in the moment and made his way around the arena to share embraces with Allen, his father, Dell, and his mother, Sonya.

"No better scenario than having Ray in the building and Reggie on the call. ... My respect for [them], guys who set the bar for what it meant to be a sharpshooter ... I've tried to own that in my journey."

"I pride myself on shooting a high percentage, I pride myself on that helping us win games. Now I can pride myself on the longevity of getting to that number Ray set, hopefully pushing it to a number nobody can reach."

The big picture: Curry's record-breaking three came 4,428 days after his first one, and in that time he's become the catalyst that changed the league forever.

• In his rookie season (2009-10), teams attempted 18.1 threes a game. Now it's up to 35.4 as the league has evolved around the analytics his transcendent play helped unearth.
• "What he's done has just completely redefined what's a good shot," said coach Steve Kerr. "It's amazing how much he's impacted the game both strategically and artistically."

The bottom line: Curry's been the greatest shooter on Earth for the better part of a decade. On Tuesday night, he made it official.

Go deeper: Charting Steph's greatness (Twitter)