The NBA has shifted to the era of the 3-point shot. But diagnosing how it got to this point is where things start to prove interesting.
The NBA instituted the 3-point shot in the 1980 season. Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics was the first to drill a triple in NBA action, and maybe few from that era had any indication of how the arc would change the game.
It has been long-in-coming, but there has never been a time since it began that the shot has been so integral to team offenses.