Charlotte Hornets: 15 greatest scorers of all-time

• 14.0 PPG, 9,839 points, 10 seasons
• NBA Sixth Man of the Year (1994)
• 46.2 career field goal percentage w/Hornets
• 40.5 career 3-point percentage w/Hornets
• 701 career games, 77 career starts w/Hornets

Dell Curry might be better known today for being the color commentator on Hornets games, as well as being the father to both Stephen and Seth Curry. However, Curry was an incredible player in his own right as a bit of a prototype for the many sharpshooters we see today in the modern, 3-point centric NBA.

Curry was originally a first-round pick by the Utah Jazz in the 1986 NBA Draft out of Virginia Tech. After a year in Salt Lake City, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. One year later, Curry would become an original Hornet after being taken by Charlotte in the 1988 NBA Expansion Draft.

Curry would go on to play 10 of his 16 years in the NBA in the Queen City. As soon as he arrived in Charlotte, the Hornets could count on Curry making big buckets for them coming off the bench as their sixth man. Though he played with the team from 1988 to 1998, he only made 77 starts in 701 career games with the Hornets.

However, Curry only averaged below 10.0 points per game once in his 10-year tenure with the Hornets. That would come in his final year with the team in 1998-99 where he averaged 9.4 points per game. Overall, Curry became the franchise’s leading scorer with 9,839 points primarily coming off the Charlotte bench for a decade.

So how did Curry amass nearly 10,000 points in Charlotte uniform? Longevity and health certainly aided him, but it was his smooth stroke from distance that has given his name staying power going on two decades since he last played professionally.

Curry made 46.2 percent of his shots from the floor in 10 years with the Hornets, while making an ultra-impressive 40.5 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. We have to remember that during Curry’s playing days that maybe each team had a 3-point specialist. Curry was 100 percent that for the Hornets for a decade.

His best season with the team came in 1993-94 during the peak of the old Hornets’ prime. He was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year, as he averaged a career-high on 16.3 points per game on 45.5 percent shooting from the floor and 40.2 percent from long distance. He played in all 82 regular season games, making no starts whatsoever, while averaging 26.5 minutes per contest.

Curry would leave the Queen City to spend his final four NBA seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Toronto Raptors before retiring after the 2001-02 NBA season. Charlotte has only retired the late Bobby Phills’ No. 13 jersey. Not to say it would happen, but Curry’s legacy with Charlotte basketball makes for a compelling case that his No. 30 belongs in the rafters.