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Dell Curry can take credit for 2 of the NBA\u2019s best all-time shooters: oldest son Stephen (left) and youngest son Seth.<\/p>\n
When the Charlotte Hornets snookered Dell Curry into what he thought was a courtside chat with his play-by-play man, Eric Collins, about the franchise\u2019s history and great moments, he wasn\u2019t prepared for what followed.<\/p>\n
Choking up a little and temporarily being at a loss for words are\u00a0reactions to be avoided in the broadcasting business. But that\u2019s what happened to\u00a0Curry when\u00a0Collins dropped the news<\/a>\u00a0on his TV partner that his jersey number was going to be retired.<\/p>\n Curry\u2019s No. 30 will be hoisted into the rafters at Spectrum Center during a halftime ceremony when the Hornets host Orlando on Thursday (7 p.m. ET, NBA TV<\/a>). It will join Bobby Phills\u2019 No. 13 \u2013 Phills was an active player when he died at age 30 in an automobile crash near the old Charlotte Coliseum in January 2000.<\/p>\n \u201cI had no idea it was happening,\u201d Curry told NBA.com in a phone interview last week. \u201cThey kind of pulled the rug out from under me.\u201d<\/p>\n A player for the Hornets for 10 of his 16 NBA seasons and a game analyst for the past 17, the 61-year-old guard from Fort Defiance, Virginia, is the closest the franchise has to a lifer in a public-facing position.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom\u00a0[the announcement]\u00a0to now, I\u2019ve had so many people reach out, well-wishes and congrats,\u201d Curry said. \u201cI\u2019m super-excited. Grateful, humble, obviously blessed to be in this organization forever.\u00a0The Hornets have been keeping me in the loop without telling me exactly everything that\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t just represent me. It\u2019s all my teammates, coaches, and the fans as\u00a0well.\u201d<\/p>\n Curry, after single seasons with the Utah Jazz (1986-87) and Cleveland Cavaliers (1987-88), became the first player chosen by the Hornets in the 1988 expansion draft<\/a>. Ten years later, he was the last of that group to leave.<\/p>\n Finding a role that fits on court<\/p>\n He played for Charlotte longer than anyone else and better than most. Curry retired as the franchise\u2019s leader<\/a> in games (701), points (9,839), field goals (3,951) and 3-pointers made (929). Kemba Walker eventually passed him in points, buckets and 3-pointers. Still, Curry ranks in the team\u2019s Top 10 in 10 categories, including steals (fourth) and assists (10th).<\/p>\n Before his son Stephen made 3-point shooting his brand with Golden State, Dell Curry put the family name on it as one of the NBA\u2019s sharpest of shooters. He was the only player in the 1990s, for instance, to shoot better than 40% from the arc in seven consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n More than a marksman, he was also a super sub, finishing seventh or higher\u00a0in balloting for the\u00a0NBA Sixth Man of the Year<\/a> award for five straight years. Curry won it in 1993-94, when he helped Charlotte to its second .500 finish by playing all 82 games off the bench. At 29, he set career highs in appearances, shots, field goals, assists and scoring (16.3 ppg).<\/p>\n Curry, at 34, spent the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season with the Milwaukee Bucks, hitting a career-best 47.6% of his 3-pointers. Then he wrapped up with three seasons with the Toronto Raptors, for whom he played 19 of his 51 playoff games.<\/p>\n He retired as the NBA\u2019s all-time leader in bench scoring (11,147), and he still ranks third, trailing only Lou Williams (13,396) and Jamal Crawford (11,279). He started only 99 of the 1,083 games he played \u2013 rare among the retired-jersey set unless your name is, oh, Mariano Rivera<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAny young player\u00a0wants\u00a0to come in and be a star,\u201d Curry said.\u00a0\u201cBut as you mature and age and figure out how to make a career in the NBA, I found this role would fit me and best help my team. I didn\u2019t feel I was diminished as a player at all. It\u2019s a damn important role to have somebody count on you to that degree.<\/p>\n \u201cThe year I won [Sixth Man], Hersey Hawkins sacrificed a lot as a starter and I finished a lot of games. That\u2019s just the chemistry we had in that locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n Seth Curry, Steph\u2019s younger brother who also plays for Golden State, has spent most of his 12-year career coming off the bench. He has been with 10 teams, making 43.3% of his 3-pointers, yet he has only stayed with one team for more than two seasons. So he admires his father\u2019s staying power.<\/p>\n \u201cIt ought to be inspirational to everybody,\u201d Seth told NBA.com on Wednesday. \u201cYou can make an impact in a lot of different ways as a player. They kept him around for 10 years, which is almost unheard of for a bench guy. I\u2019ve tried to mimic that as far as being a star in my role and filling whatever need the team\u2019s had.\u201d<\/p>\n After retirement, a new career beckons Dell Curry (center) is an analyst for Prime Video and still holds that role with the Hornets, too.<\/p>\n In\u00a0Dell Curry\u2019s most prolific season, 1995-96,\u00a0he\u00a0took 406 3-point shots, making 164 (40.4%). Twenty years later,\u00a0Steph\u00a0made\u00a0402\u00a0for the Golden State Warriors, setting the\u00a0single-season\u00a0record that\u00a0still stands.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, Steph and the Warriors changed the landscape for how the game\u2019s played,\u201d Curry said. \u201cI\u2019m willing to take a lot of credit \u2013 that\u2019s my son. I laid a foundation for how to shoot the basketball. Steph is the best ever, and Seth is right there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n After retiring in 2002, Curry returned to Charlotte to work as a team ambassador and coach in player development. But he found those roles unfulfilling and was preparing to exit when the game analyst spot opened. That was 17 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cEric Collins\u00a0has said to me, \u2018You had a great 16-year playing career but don\u2019t get mad at me saying this, you may have a better broadcast career,\u2019\u201d Curry said. \u201cI love talking about the games, I love watching games.\u00a0Dream\u00a0come\u00a0true. It\u2019s a fun time, too. We\u2019ve got great momentum with the franchise, great chemistry. For this [honor] to happen now is perfect timing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hornets have been one of the brightest stories this season, with a 24-12 record in calendar 2026, a top Kia Rookie of the Year<\/a> candidate in forward Kon Knueppel, a tight group built around young veterans LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges, a Coach of the Year<\/a> possibility in Charles Lee and a 35-34 record that has them thinking about a spot in the SoFi Play-In Tournament<\/a>\u00a0and, from there, who knows?<\/p>\n Curry estimated he would have\u00a0about\u00a0100 family members and friends on hand\u00a0Thursday. That includes\u00a0Steph and Seth, whose Warriors will be\u00a0between games in Boston and Detroit (no\u00a0accident in scheduling this event).<\/p>\n While Golden State fans have oodles of good things for which to thank Dell and Sonya Curry, the younger Currys\u2019 parents, the brothers owe even more to the household in which the<\/p>\n Asked one time what influence his father\u2019s profession had on him, Steph, in a Bay Area interview, said: \u201cBasketball IQ is just being around it and enveloping yourself in it. And watching him \u2026 just being in that atmosphere and seeing what he did and how he talked about the game off the court. You kind of pick up stuff a lot quicker. And when you get on the court, you rely on those nuances of the game. They kind of gives you an edge.\u201d<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, the four-time champion and two-time Kia MVP \u2014 widely considered the best shooter in NBA history \u2014 brought nuance to his favorite memory of the old man\u2019s playing days. It came on a game-winner, clinching the first playoff series victory in Hornets history.<\/p>\n But someone else\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were playing the Celtics in the playoffs, in the [1993] first round, and they ended up beating them,\u201d Steph told NBA.com this week. \u201c[Alonzo Mourning] hit a buzzer-beater at horn, and my dad was the inbound passer and the first one on the dogpile after \u2018Zo made the shot.<\/p>\n \u201cOff the court,\u00a0[two years later] they were playing the Bulls\u00a0in the playoffs and the\u00a0whole\u00a0team decided they would shave their heads\u00a0for\u00a0playoff solidarity. We\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0know\u00a0about it, so when my dad\u00a0came\u00a0home\u00a0he scared the daylights out of me and my siblings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n On May 5, 1993, Dell Curry played a key role in Alonzo Mourning’s series-clinching shot vs. the Celtics.<\/p>\n In time, Steph Curry will be enshrined at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame<\/a> in Springfield, Massachusetts. Odds are, he\u2019ll be honored outside San Francisco\u2019s Chase Center with one of those statues dotting the sports map these days.<\/p>\n But being the first \u201c30\u201d in the family to see it raised to the rafters\u00a0of an NBA arena\u00a0is thrilling enough for Dell.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Hall of Fame is great, but you actually have to go to the Hall to see who\u2019s there,\u201d Dell Curry said. \u201cFor Hornets fans, anybody who visits Spectrum Center for games or concerts, whatever, is going to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him\u00a0here<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a><\/p>\n
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