Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990 TAG: 9004250027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
"It's been a really good year for me," said Curry, who was injured April 12 at Houston and sat out the Hornets' final five games. "I improved as a player. And I got to play. Hey, I've got 20-some blocks this year."
Curry was laughing. He had 26 blocks to be exact. That's fourth on the team. He doesn't figure to challenge Houston's Akeem Olajuwon for the NBA shot-blocking title anytime soon, although he did sprain his ankle by stepping on Olajuwon's foot.
Curry, the former Virginia Tech shooting star, averaged 16 points this season. Just as important, he said, was his average of 28 minutes per game.
Curry, 25, also signed a guaranteed, four-year, $4.5 million contract in January. On May 5, he will graduate from Tech with a degree in sociology. "I promised my Mom I'll walk and get my diploma," he said.
And in September, Curry and his wife Sonya are expecting their second child. Son Stephen is 2.
"To produce in this league, you have to play," said Curry, whose first three NBA years were dominated by deals and disappointment. "Starting isn't that big a deal. Playing is. I got off to a great start this year."
Primarily, Curry split time with Rex Chapman, the Hornets' original college draft pick, at the No. 2 guard position. On occasion, Curry moved to small forward, a situation that appeals to Curry and Gene Littles, who became the Hornets' coach on Jan. 31 when Dick Harter was fired. Although Chapman was lost for the season on March 12 with stress fractures in his right leg, Curry continued coming off the bench in Littles' scheme.
"I was starting for Harter before he was replaced," said Curry, who had 13 starts this season. "But then I went back to the bench when Gene took over. I didn't have any problem with that. I like Gene and he likes me.
"I don't think Rex is a guy who plays well coming off the bench, and if they want to use me that way, I can do it. That's OK."
After starting his NBA career in Utah as the Jazz's first-round draft choice, Curry spent a season in Cleveland before being taken by Charlotte in the expansion draft. Penciled in as a starter for the Hornets, he broke his left wrist during the 1988-89 training camp and missed the first 19 games. He didn't emerge until the last 1 1/2 months of the season.
Harter criticized Curry's defense. By the end of that season, though, the 6-foot-5 guard had delivered enough offense and improved enough at the other end of the floor to make Harter admit that he had made a mistake.
Indeed, during last season, Harter tried to deal Curry for 7-foot Stuart Gray, a personal favorite of the coach. The trade was stopped when the Hornets couldn't fit guard John Long, also involved in the deal, into their salary cap.
Gray was acquired in a draft-day trade last June and didn't produce, so he was cut after Harter was fired. The Curry deal was the best trade the Hornets never made.
"My defense has improved a lot," said Curry, a native of Augusta County, Va. "I had a lot of steals [98] and the blocks, and I always thought I could play better defense than people said I could.
"This is the NBA. There aren't very many really good one-on-one defenders because the offensive talent is so great. Sometimes, people will talk about a guy's defense because they can't complain about his offense, and they need to have something to talk about."
Curry figures he will be back with the Hornets. If Charlotte traded him, it would have to pay the $100,000 trade provision in his contract. Asked about the possibility of a Curry trade, a source close to the Hornets said, "If they're going to trade a two-guard, it will be Chapman, not Curry. But I wouldn't be surprised if they kept them both."
Curry is finishing the four-year, $1.075 million contract he signed as a rookie. His salary this season was $325,000. Next year, it climbs to $900,000, then passes $1 million in each of the next three seasons.
"Surprisingly, I wasn't up tight about having to prove something this year," Curry said of the last year of his contract. "I guess that's maybe because when I got to training camp, Carl Scheer [the Hornets' former general manager] said he'd already talked to my agent [Lee Fentress] about a new contract, and that they were happy with me."
Curry and his family will spend much of the offseason in Blacksburg, Va., where they have purchased a home, and where his long-distance shooting at Tech built a reputation.
"I know I've accomplished some things in the NBA now," Curry said. "I'm getting a little respect in the league now. You can tell specifically by the way some people try to do things defensively to stop you. It hasn't been that way in a while. It reminds you of the way it was in college."
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB