Charlotte Hornets: When will Dell Curry have his number retired?

While the Charlotte Hornets wait for news about the rest of the season, will the team ever consider retiring Dell Curry’s jersey?

As teams do what they can during the NBA’s COVID-19 hiatus, the Charlotte Hornets have had time to think about some of their former players. When looking back, there’s a former Hornet that deserves to have his jersey retired.

There is no doubt that Kemba Walker will have his jersey retired one day, but Dell Curry is someone who deserves it sooner rather than later. As one of the longest-tenured Hornets and currently a broadcaster covering the team, Curry deserves it.

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The Hornets have only retired one jersey, and that was Bobby Phills’ (#13). His jersey was retired on February 9, 2000, about a month after he passed away from a car accident. Following the Bobcats era, his jersey was rehung in 2014; this was the year the Bobcats rebranded back into the Hornets.

Dell Curry was in the league for 16 seasons, but he spent ten seasons with the Hornets. As a Hornet, he averaged 14.0 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, while also making 929 three-pointers.

As Curry spent ten seasons in Charlotte, he managed to have his name written toward the top of a  majority of the Hornets’ all-time offensive leaderboards. For instance, he made the most career three-pointers in franchise history, but that record was surpassed by Kemba Walker during the 2017-18 season.

Currently, Curry holds some records that will take a long time to break, unless Walker returns to Charlotte in the future. Curry is the team’s all-time leader in made 2-Pt field goals with 3,022.

The only other notable leaderboard that he leads the team in is total games played. During his ten seasons with the Hornets, Curry managed to play in 701 games. Curry played in 69 more games than Muggsy Bogues and 96 more than Kemba Walker.

While those two players trail Curry, there is nearly a 250 game differential between him and the person who’s in fourth place, Gerald Wallace. Clearly, this is a record that’s going to take a long time to break.

In the seasons that Curry spent in Charlotte, he managed to win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award following the 1993-94 season; he played in all 82 games that season. To this day, Curry remains the only Charlotte player to ever win this award.

Out of the 701 games that he played in, Curry only started in 77 of them. Curry made his name by being a deadly bench scorer for the Hornets. As a bench scorer for various teams, Curry scored the most bench points in NBA history. However, his record was broken by Lou Williams in March of 2019.

After all of his success, Curry retired following the 2001-02 season with the Toronto Raptors. Years after his retirement, Curry was named an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), but he had to step-down before the season, so he could watch his sons play basketball.

In 2009, Curry came back and started working alongside the legendary Steve Martin as a color commentator. To this day, he remains a broadcaster covering the Hornets, working alongside Eric Collins on Fox Sports Southeast.

Dell Curry has lived in Charlotte for a long time, and he has given everything he has to the Hornets. With the commitment shown by him, he’s one of the most deserving players in team history to have his jersey up in the rafters.

While there’s been no news if the Hornets will finish their regular season schedule, retiring Dell Curry’s number could be something the franchise considers. A lot of Hornets fans would appreciate this gesture of respect toward Curry.