Dell Curry fights Dee Brown for the ball in a 1993 game.
GARY O’BRIEN
Charlotte Observer
The time he recorded seven steals in a regular-season Charlotte Hornets win.
The time his shooting prowess paved the way for the most famous shot in franchise history.
The time … he played minor league baseball?
Over the 10 seasons Dell Curry played for the Hornets — a tenure that gave him the honor of becoming only the second player in Hornets history to have his jersey retired — he did a lot.
Here are nine moments, listed in chronological order, that defined Curry’s career. And yes, they involve more than just him shooting the ball — though that aspect of his legacy was too special to overlook.
Dell Curry fights Dee Brown for the ball in a 1993 game. GARY O’BRIEN Charlotte Observer Dell Curry’s rise into the nation’s consciousness — in college
Curry’s No. 30 jersey number will be retired Thursday at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. But it’s already hanging in Blacksburg for his decorated basketball career at Virginia Tech. Perhaps the best game of his stint as a Hokie came in the 1986 season, when VT beat No. 1 Memphis State behind Curry’s 28 points. And those were a pure 28 — the 3-point line wasn’t introduced in the college game until the year after he left for the pros. You could tell Curry had the jumper; it just hadn’t been fully rewarded yet.
A buzzer beater in 1989
It wasn’t a consequential game in a vacuum. Yet the buzzer beater Curry hit against the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 17, 1989 still rests in Hornets lore. The short of it: Down two with a little over 10 seconds left, Muggsy Bogues lingered at the top of the key, then drove left, then kicked it to Curry — and Curry caught and shot a three lightning fast and the ball fluttered through the net. In a recent video on the shot, produced by the Hornets, Curry recalled the play: “As we broke the huddle, (Bogues) comes up to me and says, ‘This play is not gonna work. I’m gonna decoy and drive. Your man is going to help. I’m going to kick to you, and we’re going to win the game.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
Curry hit other late go-ahead buckets throughout his career. But this shot at this moment — as the mania surrounding the second-year Hornets began its crescendo — told the city that Charlotte was always going to put on a fun product, with Curry at or near the center of it.
A defensive showing for the books
What Curry might have lacked in rebounding prowess (we’ll get to that in a moment), he more than made up for in his presence as a ballhawk. For his career, he only managed 0.9 steals per game, technically, according to ESPN. But he had several games in his career when he had more than five steals. His career high came Dec. 30, 1989 — again in the Hornets’ second year of existence — when he notched seven steals in a win over Houston, per Pro Basketball Reference.
He also notched six steals in a playoff game in May 1993 in a close loss to the New York Knicks.
Dell Curry and Muggsy Bogues … played baseball?
OK, so saying that the following moment “defined” Curry’s enchanted basketball career is a bit of a stretch. But hear this out.
One day, in 1991, George Shinn had an idea. Shinn not only owned the Charlotte Hornets at the time but also owned the MLB’s Texas Rangers, as well as one of its minor-league affiliate teams, the Gastonia Rangers. The Gastonia Rangers played just a few miles away from Charlotte. Shinn’s idea? To have Curry and Bogues give his minor league team some free promotion by filling in on the roster — after all, Curry and Bogues each played baseball in their previous athletic lives.
Curry was especially good. He lettered in baseball at Virginia Tech as a right-handed pitcher. He was so good, in fact, that he was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 14th round of the 1985 First-Year Player Draft. Curry would later tell a reporter in a 2001 interview that he didn’t pursue pro baseball, ultimately, because he would’ve needed to leave school early in order to work his way through the rookie league and the various farm teams to get to the majors — and leaving school was a non-negotiable for his mother.
Oh, and in that promotional game with the Gastonia Rangers? Curry struck out four and allowed three hits, a walk and a run in three innings, according to MLB.com.
So yes, it wasn’t defining from a basketball sense. But it offered a glimpse into what could’ve been — a window into what Charlotte might’ve missed if Curry had decided to play baseball.
Dell Curry’s best night as a playmaker — and his first double-double
Curry averaged 1.8 assists per game in his career. But he made it into double digits in assists precisely one time, according to an extensive review of Pro Basketball Reference records. That was on Feb., 6, 1992, in a game where he scored 18 points and notched 10 assists en route to a 132-113 win over the Golden State Warriors. It also marked his first double-double.
Dell Curry’s virtuoso performance before Alonzo Mourning’s shot
Everyone remembers Alonzo Mourning’s shot on May 5, 1993 — it gave the Hornets a 104-103 win over the Boston Celtics to clinch the first playoff series win in franchise history. But in the game prior to the series-clinching one, Curry carried the Hornets to a comfortable 119-89 win in Charlotte thanks to a 27-point performance on 12-of-17 shooting; that scoring output was the highest in his playoff career.
Dell Curry’s night as a board man
Curry, like his performance in the assist category, only notched double-digit rebounds once in his career. That came April 14, 1996, in a win on the road against Philadelphia. It also marked his second and final double-double of his career, according to records available on Pro Basketball Reference and Stat Muse.
The day Dell Curry had the green light
Dell Curry had crested the 30-point threshold before, and he’d do so a few times after this date as well. But something about Nov. 2, 1996, was spectacular. Against the Toronto Raptors, in 43 minutes, Curry poured in his career-high 38 points on 15-of-23 shooting from the field — and specifically 6-of-11 shooting from the 3-point line. These aren’t prolific 3-point numbers by today’s standards; you can thank Dell’s son, Steph, for that dramatic shift. But Dell, one of the game’s best shooters at the time, rarely attempted double-digit threes. In fact, according to Stat Muse, in every game where he scored 27 points or more — which happened 22 times — he only shot over 10 threes twice.
In his entire career, according to an extensive review of his Pro Basketball Reference game logs, he only shot 10-plus 3s in a single game 17 times. (And he played 1,083 games!)
His last win as a Charlotte Hornet
The day came on May 6, 1998. It was Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Chicago Bulls. Curry, in his 10th season with the franchise and his 12th in the NBA, scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and went 1 of 2 from the 3-point line — his last made 3-pointer in a teal jersey. The Hornets gutted out a 78-76 win; it was the only win they managed against the three-peat-bound, Michael Jordan-led Bulls. Curry moved on to Milwaukee as a free agent thereafter, but by that point it was clear his legacy would be intertwined with the Hornets franchise forever.
The Charlotte Observer
Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22.
Support my work with a digital subscription