Former NBA Owner Warned His Players Against Interracial Marriage

Sonya Curry, Steph's mom, told a tale about ex-Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn.

NEW ORLEANS - MARCH 13:  George Shinn, owner of the New Orleans Hornets, hosts their annual Top Hats and High Tops gala with proceeds benefiting the Shinn Foundation on March 13, 2008 at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS - MARCH 13: George Shinn, owner of the New Orleans Hornets, hosts their annual Top Hats and High Tops gala with proceeds benefiting the Shinn Foundation on March 13, 2008 at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)
NBAE/Getty Images

Though NBA All-Star Weekend was a celebration of the current state of basketball, one story to come out of Charlotte shed light on a not-so-flattering aspect of the host city’s past.

In an interview with The Undefeated, the mother of current NBA players Stephen and Seth Curry shared something disturbing that was happening when their father Dell was playing the Hornets in Charlotte.

According to Sonya Curry, while Dell was sharpshooting 3-pointers for the Hornets on the court, his boss, team owner George Shinn, was saying some shameful things about him off the hardwood.

Sonya, a fair-skinned African-American woman, told The Undefeated that Shinn thought she was white and was upset that a black player (Dell) was married to her.

“The owner called in another player, a white guy player who dated black women, and said, ‘We drafted you. We know who you like to date. But we just want to tell you to really be careful about letting people see because Dell Curry is married to a white woman and we don’t know how people are going to take them either,’ ” Sonya said. “The player was like, ‘You are not going to believe what they just said.’ I was like, ‘What?’ Just the assumption of what I look like and all that.”

Shinn went on to move the franchise to New Orleans where they eventually became the Pelicans. Thankfully for everyone involved, he no longer owns the team.

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