
Article:
Curry hopes to scurry
November 11, 2004
BY LACY J. BANKS Staff Reporter Advertisement
Eddy Curry is one game into his fourth NBA season, but he already has seen enough to conclude it won't be any different from the previous three.
In terms of his basketball development, Chicago is no longer Curry's kind of town.
He wants out.
That's the word from relatives, his new agents, Darren White and Lamont Carter, and close friends with whom he has been sharing his growing frustrations.
''I'd hate to see him leave Chicago because Chicago always will be his home,'' said Curry's mother, Gayle, who has been at times her son's toughest critic and biggest cheerleader. ''They can't take that away from him. But if that's what it takes for him to fulfill his ambition to be the best player he can be, then I want what's best for my son.
''Playing for another team helped Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Brad Miller, Trenton Hassell, Fred Hoiberg and others to do better on better teams. I believe that the same can happen for Eddy. Maybe in the future, Chicago may be the best place for him to play. But right now, it isn't.''
White and Carter are in full agreement and say it's time to ask operations chief John Paxson to trade Curry to another team, ''as some have been already suggesting in the media anyway.''
''Eddy has some serious concerns about whether the situation with the Bulls is in the best interest of his basketball future,'' White said. ''He's not ripping anybody. He's not that kind of person. He's working harder than ever and trying to help the Bulls get better. But Lamont and I no longer feel that he can reach his fullest potential playing for the Bulls, and this is something that will not go away.
''I would love to try to do something in the near future, even before they go on this road trip [beginning Tuesday]. We feel it would be a win-win situation for both parties. Since Eddy doesn't see himself taking it to another level with this organization, why do we need 15 or 20 more games to validate that? We certainly wouldn't want to see them go through the whole season and then try to trade him. We just feel Eddy does not fit into the Bulls' future, and since this is a contract year, we'd rather he try to sell himself in a more promising and more positive situation.''
Curry, 21, who grew up in Calumet City, will become a restricted free agent next summer, meaning the Bulls will be able to match any offer. But Paxson will continue to gauge trade interest in all of his players before the February trade deadline.
In public, Curry continues to try to be positive about the situation. He never has ripped the Bulls and is not inclined to criticize anybody outside himself. He respects authority and takes chastisement from his coaches because that's how he was raised. He also accepts part of the responsibility for the Bulls' struggles. That's why he got new agents, worked harder than ever this summer to adhere to the Bulls' fitness demands and came into training camp in the best shape of his life, determined to have a career year to help the Bulls improve.
Though he hasn't made the impact of some other preps-to-pros draft picks such as Cleveland's LeBron James and Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire, Curry has improved his statistics each season. The center averaged 14.7 points and 6.2 rebounds last season.
But in his first game of the regular season Tuesday night, after serving a two-game suspension for fighting in a preseason game, he played just 17 minutes and had three points on 1-for-5 shooting, six rebounds and four turnovers in a 94-74 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
''I never really asserted myself,'' Curry said. ''I never really made my presence felt out there. That can't happen if we plan on winning games.
"I felt the nervousness before I got on the court [Tuesday] night, which is something I did not anticipate. It was tough. I was trying to fight through it, but it got the best of me. I'm definitely anxious to play again and try and get us a win before we go on the road.''
Curry was outplayed by Stoudemire, who has developed in a more stable situation, surrounded by veterans Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and Bo Outlaw and newly acquired teammates Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson. The only teammate left from Curry's rookie year is Tyson Chandler. Curry has had 50 teammates and is on his third coach in four years.
For his part, Paxson said he's not going to panic in response to any suggestions from the media, or perhaps even requests from agents, that Curry or Chandler or both be traded.
''I sympathize with our whole fan base and media base who have seen this for seven years now,'' Paxson said after practice Wednesday. ''But the time is not right now to decide the futures of Tyson and Eddy. Have we put some expectations and burdens on them? Yes. But everybody gets that in this league. You wouldn't do that if you didn't feel they had something in them to be better players.
"But we're not ready to abandon them after three games. I'd told them that they are going to be measured by the fact they can make a difference in [the Bulls] winning games. So we don't want them to be discouraged. We want them to play.''
But insiders say that Curry has been privately voicing discouragement because of the way the media are ripping him and suggesting he be traded and the way fans are booing the team.
''Actually, it's been an accumulation of things,'' one close friend said. ''First and foremost, there's all this losing. Next, there's the media blaming him and Tyson Chandler more and more for the Bulls' failures, as if it's all their fault. The Bulls were losing big-time before he came, and they haven't helped things by continuing to change rosters and coaches and concentrate on youth and inexperience.''
There's also the matter of Curry's camp requesting a maximum contract extension that was rejected.
''Eddy feels bad that the Bulls never even made a counteroffer to his agents,'' the friend said. ''He believes that even if he has a bust-out season, the same thing that happened to Jamal Crawford will happen to him. Crawford led the team in scoring, and they said they'd match the best offer he got. Then, rather than match the offer, they traded Jamal. Eddy sees the same thing possibly happening to him.''