Dell Curry can take credit for 2 of the NBA’s best all-time shooters: oldest son Stephen (left) and youngest son Seth.
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’s history and great moments, he wasn’t prepared for what followed.
Choking up a little and temporarily being at a loss for words are reactions to be avoided in the broadcasting business. But that’s what happened to Curry when Collins dropped the news on his TV partner that his jersey number was going to be retired.
Curry’s No. 30 will be hoisted into the rafters at Spectrum Center during a halftime ceremony when the Hornets host Orlando on Thursday. It will join Bobby Phills’ No. 13 – Phills was an active player when he died at age 30 in an automobile crash near the old Charlotte Coliseum in January 2000.
“I had no idea it was happening,” Curry told NBA.com in a phone interview last week. “They kind of pulled the rug out from under me.”
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.
“From [the announcement] to now, I’ve had so many people reach out, well-wishes and congrats,” Curry said. “I’m super-excited. Grateful, humble, obviously blessed to be in this organization forever. The Hornets have been keeping me in the loop without telling me exactly everything that’s going to happen.
“It doesn’t just represent me. It’s all my teammates, coaches, and the fans as well.”
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. Ten years later, he was the last of that group to leave.
Finding a role that fits on court
He played for Charlotte longer than anyone else and better than most. Curry retired as the franchise’s leader 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’s Top 10 in 10 categories, including steals (fourth) and assists (10th).
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’s 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.
More than a marksman, he was also a super sub, finishing seventh or higher in balloting for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year 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).
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.
He retired as the NBA’s 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 – rare among the retired-jersey set unless your name is, oh, Mariano Rivera.
“Any young player wants to come in and be a star,” Curry said. “But 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’t feel I was diminished as a player at all. It’s a damn important role to have somebody count on you to that degree.
“The year I won [Sixth Man], Hersey Hawkins sacrificed a lot as a starter and I finished a lot of games. That’s just the chemistry we had in that locker room.”
Seth Curry, Steph’s 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’s staying power.
“It ought to be inspirational to everybody,” Seth told NBA.com on Wednesday. “You 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’ve tried to mimic that as far as being a star in my role and filling whatever need the team’s had.”
After retirement, a new career beckons
Dell Curry (center) is an analyst for Prime Video and still holds that role with the Hornets, too.
In Dell Curry’s most prolific season, 1995-96, he took 406 3-point shots, making 164 (40.4%). Twenty years later, Steph made 402 for the Golden State Warriors, setting the single-season record that still stands.
“Honestly, Steph and the Warriors changed the landscape for how the game’s played,” Curry said. “I’m willing to take a lot of credit – that’s my son. I laid a foundation for how to shoot the basketball. Steph is the best ever, and Seth is right there as well.”
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.
“Eric Collins has said to me, ‘You had a great 16-year playing career but don’t get mad at me saying this, you may have a better broadcast career,’” Curry said. “I love talking about the games, I love watching games. Dream come true. It’s a fun time, too. We’ve got great momentum with the franchise, great chemistry. For this [honor] to happen now is perfect timing.”
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 candidate in forward Kon Knueppel, a tight group built around young veterans LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges, a Coach of the Year possibility in Charles Lee and a 35-34 record that has them thinking about a spot in the SoFi Play-In Tournament and, from there, who knows?
Curry estimated he would have about 100 family members and friends on hand Thursday. That includes Steph and Seth, whose Warriors will be between games in Boston and Detroit (no accident in scheduling this event).
While Golden State fans have oodles of good things for which to thank Dell and Sonya Curry, the younger Currys’ parents, the brothers owe even more to the household in which the
Asked one time what influence his father’s profession had on him, Steph, in a Bay Area interview, said: “Basketball IQ is just being around it and enveloping yourself in it. And watching him … 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.”
Not surprisingly, the four-time champion and two-time Kia MVP — widely considered the best shooter in NBA history — brought nuance to his favorite memory of the old man’s playing days. It came on a game-winner, clinching the first playoff series victory in Hornets history.
But someone else’s shot.
“They were playing the Celtics in the playoffs, in the [1993] first round, and they ended up beating them,” Steph told NBA.com this week. “[Alonzo Mourning] hit a buzzer-beater at horn, and my dad was the inbound passer and the first one on the dogpile after ‘Zo made the shot.
“Off the court, [two years later] they were playing the Bulls in the playoffs and the whole team decided they would shave their heads for playoff solidarity. We didn’t know about it, so when my dad came home he scared the daylights out of me and my siblings.”
On May 5, 1993, Dell Curry played a key role in Alonzo Mourning’s series-clinching shot vs. the Celtics.
In time, Steph Curry will be enshrined at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Odds are, he’ll be honored outside San Francisco’s Chase Center with one of those statues dotting the sports map these days.
But being the first “30” in the family to see it raised to the rafters of an NBA arena is thrilling enough for Dell.
“The Hall of Fame is great, but you actually have to go to the Hall to see who’s there,” Dell Curry said. “For Hornets fans, anybody who visits Spectrum Center for games or concerts, whatever, is going to see that.”
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X
