An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Larry Bird (Kind Of) Endorses Four-Point Shot

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Blame the Golden State Warriors.

The defending NBA champs, who have torched much of the league with their dead-eye - and high-volume - three-point shooting, could be forcing the league to move closer to making a proposed four-point shot a reality.

While fans and league insiders have casually floated the idea around for years, now NBA legend and long-distance bomber Larry Bird is giving a somewhat tentative endorsement to the four-point shot.

He told the New Yorker putting in a four-point line beyond the current distance of the three-point shot - which at its furthest distance is nearly 24 feet - could simply be the next step in the game's evolution.

"Every ten, twelve, fifteen years, there's something new coming in," Bird told The New Yorker. "You put that four-point line in there and people will start practicing. And once they start practicing, they get better at it.

"Maybe five or ten years down the road, fours are what everybody will be shooting. The game evolves," he added.

Former Lakers coach Byron Scott also backed the idea last October, when he told the Orange County Register he would like to see the NBA institute a four-point line, despite his criticisms of teams like the Warriors relying too much on shooting threes.

"I would add another line and make a 4-point line as well. I'd say let's go another three or four feet back and that's a 4-pointer," he said.

Stats compiled by Basketball-Reference.com show nearly 30 percent of all shots in the NBA now come from beyond the three-point arc, compared to about 10 percent in the early 1990s.

As early as 2014, league executives acknowledged to ESPN considering plans "at least in an exploratory fashion" of introducing a four-pointer, even as NBA officials downplayed the possibility, at least in the short term.

Earlier this year, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggested moving back the line would also open up the game to encourage more drives and mid-range jumpers.

But NBA fans may still be wary of seeing more shots from near half-court: a CBSLA poll found more than 60 percent of respondents were opposed to adding a four-point shot.

What do you think of an NBA four-point line? Let us know in the comments section below.