Calling Out Eddy Curry

In 2007 Curry was scoring nearly 20 points (19.5) per night and actually rebounding … yes Curry was actually rebounding (7 rpg). Since then he’s missed 100 games and struggled with numerous off court issues, weight and injuries.

Curry has made nearly $50 million during the course of his eight-year career, largely based on the overused “potential” designation – as if “potential” is an excuse to hand out millions of dollars, but I’ll address NBA executives at another time.

But all of this isn’t Curry’s fault; he came into the league hyped as “Baby Shaq,” much like Harold Miner was labeled as “Baby Jordan” Think labels don’t impact players? Well here’s a quote from George Raveling, who was Miner’s coach at USC.

“I always felt the worst thing to happen to Harold was the "Baby Jordan" tag”

Scouts are always hyping prospects and giving player comparisons is the nature of the business when issuing evaluations. I understand that, but what I don’t understand is ... Curry’s ability or lack thereof to rebound on a consistent basis. Andrea Bargnani doesn’t rebound, but at least he has an excuse. He shoots about four 3-pointers a game and routinely camps out on the perimeter. Bargnani also wasn’t touted as a dominating physical specimen and right now domination and Curry shouldn’t even be in the same zip code.

The New York Times reported last month that Curry had lost 40 pounds during the summer, but we’ve yet to see him in action because of another injury.

The Knicks are extremely thin in the frontcourt with David Lee, Al Harrington, Darko Milicic and Jordan Hill expected to get the lion share of minutes. If Curry can’t carve out 20 minutes a night on a team expecting Milicic to start, then I’d seriously question any exec digging into the checkbook in the future.

Curry will be 27 this season, so how much longer can the “potential” label be used without stating the obvious … for a top 5 pick, he’s been a bust.


Lang
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