When Eric Collins and Dell Curry sat down for what appeared to be the first installment of an interview series about Charlotte Hornets history, Curry wasn’t expecting much. The two had talked before about the possibility of his No. 30 being retired by the Hornets — and Curry had largely let the idea go.
So when Collins told him his jersey was going up into the rafters, Curry’s first instinct wasn’t tears. It was suspicion.
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“I thought it was a prank,” Curry said during a phone interview. “The look I must have given him … he said, ‘No, I’m serious.’”
He still didn’t believe it. And then it hit him.
The Hornets had been planning the announcement for months, a secret kept remarkably intact given that Curry is around the organization every single day — as a broadcaster, an ambassador, a fixture.
The franchise’s first-ever draft pick, Dell Curry will see his jersey retired tonight. (Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
(Ronald Cortes via Getty Images)
Curry spent 10 seasons in Charlotte after being selected in the 1988 expansion draft, the franchise’s very first pick. He won the Sixth Man of the Year award in 1994. He’s one of 16 players in the 1990s to attempt over five 3-pointers per game and make over 40% of them. But back then, coaches told him to play inside out like everyone else. He listened, even when he didn’t fully agree.
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“I always thought I should be shooting more. But it was not the way the game was played,” he said. “Back then we had dominant centers. You played inside-out basketball. Now it’s played outside the 3-point line and in.”
He watched the game change anyway with his son, Stephen Curry, leading the charge. Now he sits in the broadcast booth beside Collins and calls games for a Hornets team that ranks third in the league in both 3-point attempts and 3-point percentage — the only team in the top 3 of both categories. Four players on this roster take more 3s per game than Curry ever did at his career high.
Recently, there’s been debate surrounding the state of the 3-point line. Should the corners be eliminated? Should the line be extended? Dell doesn’t want to see things change now.
“The league has a lot of 3-point takers. We need some 3-point makers,” Curry said. “That’s how you improve because I don’t think the game’s going to change. Every team is offensively structured to take 3s. Guys that are taking it just gotta shoot a better percentage.”
Dell Curry played 10 seasons in Charlotte, where he averaged 14 ppg. (Doug Pensinger /Allsport)
(Doug Pensinger via Getty Images)
Easier said than done for one of the best shooters of the 1990s whose genetics passed on to the greatest shooter ever in Steph and another elite shooter in Seth Curry. Despite his success on the court, Dell’s legacy in Charlotte isn’t all about the numbers, and he knows it.
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“Not being that true superstar guy, when it was first announced, I wondered if I deserved this,” Curry said. But then calls started coming in from family, friends, and the organization itself. The message was consistent: this is more than a playing career. It’s the broadcasts. The community work. The nearly three decades of showing up, in one role or another, for a franchise that has had precious few constants.
“When I thought about it that way, I’m like, ‘Wow, maybe I do deserve this,’” Curry said. “Me being the first one other than Bobby Phills says a lot. I don’t take this lightly. I know how big a deal this is.”
Curry is the second player in Hornets history to have his number retired, after Phills, whose No. 13 was first raised to the rafters in 2000 less than a month after Phills died in a car accident.
For an organization that has deliberately kept the rafters sparse, that distinction matters to him.
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“I’m starting to get a little nervous,” Curry said. “I want to make sure I say the right things and not leave anybody out.”
There’s something fitting about the timing. The Hornets have spent most of this season finding themselves — sputtering early, then quietly becoming one of the more watchable teams in the league over the last two months. Curry attributes the turnaround less to the shooting, which was always there, and more to what’s happened on the other end. The defense has tightened. The effort has followed the buy-in.
“Everybody’s putting forth massive effort defensively,” Curry said. “Because they know on the offensive end, they’ll share the ball and everybody’s going to eat.”
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He watches all of it from the best seat in the house — the one beside Collins, who brings the same energy on a bleak February road trip as he does with the arena rocking like it is right now. Curry loves that they’ve built something real in the booth over the years for a franchise that now is winning again.
Dell Curry, one of the original shooters in a league that didn’t quite know what to do with him yet, who stuck around Charlotte long after the playing days ended, is getting what he earned. Tonight, 30 hangs forever.
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