Ahead of the March 19 ceremony, Curry opens up about the honor of having his No. 30 jersey raised to the rafters at the Spectrum Center. By DIAMOND VENCES
Dipping into the memory bank, it didn’t take long for Muggsy Bogues to come up with an answer.
“Well, we had a lot of games,” Bogues, a member of the original expansion Charlotte Hornets, told The Charlotte Observer, “but one game that always stands out is that Golden State game.”
Bogues, who suited up for the Hornets from 1988-1998, was referring to what went down on Nov. 17, 1989, during the Hornets’ second season in existence.
In response to being asked for his favorite moment playing with Dell Curry as the No. 30 jersey goes into the Spectrum Center rafters Thursday night, Bogues pointed to the Hornets’ 99-98 victory over the Warriors. He recalled it as if it took place recently instead of three-plus decades ago.
“We were down by two, our coach called the play,” Bogues said, referring to Dick Harter. “And of course me as the point guard extension of the coach and having a pulse of the game, I didn’t feel like that play was going to work. So, I kind of changed it and gave Dell different instructions and what he needed to do in order to get open. And fortunately enough, it worked.
Hornets legends (from left) Kendall Gill, Muggsy Bogues and Dell Curry take the stage during the Buzz City Celebration at the Epicentre on Thursday, July 18, 2013. ROBERT LASHER rlahser@charlotteobserver.com
“I was able to create two and kick it over to the corner, and he was right there waiting on it and he knocked it down for three. So neither one of us got in trouble because we came out with the win. But it was something that Coach was kind of looking over, sort of knowing that that wasn’t the play that he called.”
Nope. It was for another fan favorite — the team’s first-ever draft pick, Rex Chapman.
“He drew up a play for Rex to come off the right side,” Curry told The Observer. “Rex was a rookie, second year. We’re like, ‘Wow, he’s trying a play for the young guy. OK, whatever.’ That was my thought. Like, ‘Wow, he’s giving it to Rex. OK, all right.’ So, we break the huddle and immediately Muggsy walks up to me, called me by my nickname and goes, ‘That’s not happening. I got the ball.’
Charlotte's Muggsy Bogues keeps an eye on the ball and Boston's Dee Brown. BOB LEVERONE
“He goes, ‘We’re running the play, and I’m going to make everybody think we’re running the play. Instead of going right, I’m going to go back left.’ And I was to be lifted in the corner all by myself. He goes, ‘All the action is going to be over here. I’m going to come back left. I’m going to get by my guy.’ Which he had no problem doing that. He goes, ‘Your guy’s going to stop, come in, stop the ball. I’m going to kick it to you. You’re going to make a three, we’re going to win.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s do it.’”
The rest is history.
Curry was one of the NBA’s original sharpshooters beyond the arc, long before his oldest son, Steph Curry, became known as the baby-faced assassin. Of the 52 makes in the 147 attempts Dell Curry tossed during the 1989-90 campaign, that ranks right up there with the best of them.
“A lot of people didn’t understand or see that it was a 3-point shot because a lot of threes weren’t taken back then,” Curry said. “But I knew right away I was behind the line and I knew once I let it go, I’m like, ‘Man, that’s going in. Mugs did call the right play. We got this done.’”
All despite going against Harter’s plan.
“He trusted me, and he just couldn’t believe that I changed the play,” Bogues said of Harter. “But when it went in, he just put his hands up and shook his shoulders and went on with it. But that was one of the few memories that we always like to share with each other. He knew that we had to change the play because I didn’t like the play that was called.”
The Observer spoke to a few of Curry’s former teammates to get their best memories of their time with the guy whose jersey is being retired. Here’s what they shared:
Alonzo Mourning (center) splits between Patrick Ewing and Doc Rivers. GARY O'BRIEN
Alonzo Mourning, played with Curry from 1992-95
Alonzo Mourning called Curry a class act and remains grateful for their friendship.
“He’s just one of the best teammates that I had,” Mourning said. “I just wish I would have taken his advice and started playing golf in my 20s. I’d probably be a little bit better at it like him and Steph. I remember him trying to take me out there and I didn’t listen to him. I was busy trying to find my way back into the weight room at that time.”
IMourning chuckled while flashing back to one particular encounter with Curry at a country club right here in Charlotte.
Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning celebrate after the Hornets’ 1993 NBA playoff win over the Boston Celtics. BOB LEVERONE
“He took me out to play golf and because I was a Nike athlete they made me some custom-made clubs,” Mourning said. “I walk out to the course, and it was basically my first round of golf. Dell was like, ‘Yo, where are your clubs?’ So I took them out and my clubs were upside down and still had plastic on them. He laughed his (butt) off and he didn’t let me hear the last of that.
“That was an experience I’ll never forget. From then on I’ve been ready for it when I step out on the golf course.”
Glen Rice, played with Curry from 1995-98
Glen Rice made 1,559 career 3-pointers, 508 coming during his time with the Hornets, and sits in eighth place on Charlotte’s all-time list.
Ask him about Curry, whose 929 3-pointers with the Hornets ranks second only to Kemba Walker’s 1,283, and he’s incensed there’s no mention of Curry when the discussion turns to the NBA’s best snipers ever.
“He was one of the top damn shooters in the league, and he doesn’t get his just due,” Rice said. “I hate the fact that when they talk about all these damn shooters, and they start putting all these (not-so-good) shooters in front of Dell. Even myself. I’m like, ‘C’mon man, are you serious?’
Glen Rice celebrates the team’s win in Game 2 against the Atlanta Hawks i,k their 1998 NBA playoff series. The win put the Hornets up 2-0. PATRICK SCHNEIDER
“Go back to our prime, I’d love you to see me and Dell against (Steph) and Klay (Thompson). I’d love to see that.”
Rice believes they should have been deemed the original Splash Brothers.
“Dell had the smoothest game,” Rice said. “It looked like Dell was going slow, but man, he had that release, that sweetness. And he’d always say when you get that hard swish in the net, we’d always say, ‘That’s matches, baby. It’s like lighting a match on a matchbook.’
“Whenever I got going I would always hear, ‘Matches!’ I knew that was Dell. And every time he would say it I was like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re really about to burn this place down, because I got my partner in crime over there yelling, ‘Matches!’ And then when he’d get in the game and start drilling them too, I’d be like, ‘Matches!’ That was our thang, me and him, everybody was like, ‘That’s Dell and Glen, they are going off again.’ It wasn’t too many times we didn’t go off as a pair.”
Animosity was nonexistent between the duo.
“He created an atmosphere between me and him that as far as 3-point shooters, we were untouchable,” Rice said. “He’d tell me, ‘Glen, find me two people who can outshoot me and you. I wish they were doing couples 3-point shooting in the All-Star game. No one would beat us.’ Dell, he’s got that quiet confidence, and I was like, ‘He is telling the damn truth because no one would be able to beat us.’”
Charlotte's Larry Johnson, Kenny Gattison and Robert Parish. BOB LEVERONE
Kenny Gattison, played with Curry from 1988-95
Gattison is like a brother to Curry, having met at a five-star basketball camp in Pittsburgh in 1981 prior to becoming teammates in Charlotte.
“Dell had this crazy setup that was instinctive,” Gattison said. “Any time Dell came out to shoot the ball, it was systematic and instinctive. He always took a lateral step and a step back. So when he caught the ball, his shoulders were always exactly square with the rim.
“And without looking at it, when he lined up the shot, he flicked it in his hand so the seam of the ball would be across his fingers. And then one day in practice, I’m like, ‘You doing that on purpose?’ He’s like, ‘Doing what?’ ‘It’s a little flick you do.’ He said, ‘No, I just do it.’ I’ve been doing it my whole life. Instinctively. And now you see guys shoot the ball, they look like a corkscrew going up there.”
Charlotte's Larry Johnson and Kenny Gattison. BOB LEVERONE
Gattison had one more Curry characteristic that was uncanny and unique.
“The guy didn’t sweat,” Gattison said. “I’m sitting here pouring down sweat like a racehorse. And he got one bead of sweat coming down his head. I’m like, talk about cool as the other side. ‘You run cool, you shoot cool, you don’t sweat.’
“We all would be pouring sweat. Dell did not. He’d have a little bit of sweat and that was it. Our jersey would be stuck to us. You will never find a picture of Dell Curry and his jersey soaking wet. He just didn’t sweat.”