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Eddy Curry

Position	Center
Nickname	E-City
Height	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Weight	285 lb (130 kg)
Team	New York Knicks
Nationality	United States
Born	December 5, 1982 (age 24) Calumet City, Illinois
College	none
Draft	4th overall, 2001 Chicago Bulls
Pro career	2001–present
Former teams	Chicago Bulls (2000–05)

Eddy Curry Jr. (born December 5, 1982, in Calumet City, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player in the NBA currently with the New York Knicks.

Contents 1 High school 2 NBA Draft 3 Professional career 4 Cardiac problems 5 Trivia 6 Awards and accomplishments 6.1 NBA 6.2 Pre-NBA 7 External link

Curry was regarded as one of the best high school basketball players in the nation as a senior at Thornwood High School in South Holland, Illinois. Curry led his team to second place in the 2001 IHSA State Playoffs.

Curry had signed a letter of intent to play at DePaul University but declared himself eligible for the 2001 NBA Draft in which the Chicago Bulls made him the fourth overall pick. The decision to draft Curry and pair him alongside fellow rookie Tyson Chandler was a major surprise to many basketball fans given that both players were high school seniors. In trying to rebuild from the Michael Jordan era, both Curry and Chandler wore uniform numbers that when put together read 23; Curry wore number 2, and Chandler number 3.

Curry's contribution was limited during his rookie year due to limited minutes. Curry did improve in his second year, leading the NBA in field goal percentage (58.5%) and becoming the first Bull to lead the league in a major statistical category since Michael Jordan in 1998. His 2003 season was widely considered a disappointment as he failed to live up to expectations after a strong finish to the previous year. In the 2004-2005 season the Bulls improved by 28 wins and made the playoffs as the 22 year old Curry led the team in scoring before being hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat. This caused him to miss the last 13 games of the regular season and the entire playoffs. On June 24, 2005, heart specialists cleared Curry to resume practice. On October 3, 2005, after refusing on privacy grounds to submit to a DNA test, as requested by Bulls management to assess whether he has a congenital heart condition, Curry was traded to the New York Knicks. The trade included the Bulls' Antonio Davis, as well as the Knicks' Mike Sweetney, Tim Thomas, and Jermaine Jackson. First round draft picks were also exchanged in the trade - which later came back to haunt the Knicks as they had a poor 2005-06 season in which Curry averaged 13.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game (numbers that were significantly down from the previous season). Despite his talent, Curry's inability to defend and rebound has become a source of frustration for former coaches such as Scott Skiles and Larry Brown. When asked by a reporter in 2003 what Curry needed to do to become a better rebounder, Skiles simply replied: "Jump." [1] The 2006-07 season has seen a resurgence in Curry's performance under new coach Isiah Thomas, with Curry anointed the team's primary offensive option, averaging career highs in points (19.6), rebounds (7.1), and minutes (34.9) per game.

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Several prominent cardiologists cleared Curry to play, but Barry Maron, a world-renowned specialist in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, suggested the DNA test. [2] During the team's media day, Bulls General Manager John Paxson said he understood the privacy issues involved but insisted the Bulls did not have an ulterior motive; they simply do not want a situation similar to those of former Boston Celtics guard Reggie Lewis or Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers -- players with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who collapsed and died. Paxson told reporters the Bulls had offered Curry $400,000 annually for the next fifty years if he failed the genetic test.

The test that Eddy Curry was required to take is called Predictive DNA Testing. It has an approximately 10% efficiency at detecting DNA irregularities which may signal the chance of a person developing a specific condition. The practice is illegal in 40 states. Such testing does not reveal the presence of a condition but rather seeks out irregularities which can be used to determine if a person may be susceptible to developing a specific condition. It is far from an established science and has also been known to produce as many false positives as true posititives.

From the standpoint of an NBA player, if the test produced a false positive which you would be unable to determine until decades down the road when you would know whether or not the person actually did or did not develop the disease, you may have just ended the career of a pro player based entirely on a test that has a 10% efficiency.

In the end, even the very doctor that suggested the DNA test cleared Eddy Curry to resume playing, merely suggesting Curry take the test; he never actually demanded it. It has been suggested that the episodes he suffered could have been the result of a poor diet Curry was following in an effort to lose weight, as stipulated by the Bulls in order to obtain a new — and larger — contract. There is speculation Curry may have used ephedra to enhance his weight loss, which could potentially have compounded the situation.

His favorite Chicago landmark is Buckingham Fountain.^{[citation needed]}

• Led league in field goal percentage, 2002-03

• USA Today First Team All-American
• PARADE Magazine High School Player of the Year
• Earned Illinois Mr. Basketball honors
• MVP of the McDonald's All-American game after scoring 28 points with 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in leading the West to a 131-125 victory
• Led Thornwood High School to the Illinois State Championship game, averaging 22.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 6.0 blocked shots, shooting .640 from the floor, including 25.0 points and 10.0 rebounds in the state tournament. ... Averaged 24.6 points and 11.2 rebounds, along with 4.8 blocks, as a junior.

• Profile on NBA.com

2001 NBA Draft
First Round Kwame Brown | Tyson Chandler | Pau Gasol | Eddy Curry | Jason Richardson | Shane Battier | Eddie Griffin | DeSagana Diop | Rodney White | Joe Johnson | Kedrick Brown | Vladimir Radmanović | Richard Jefferson | Troy Murphy | Steven Hunter | Kirk Haston | Michael Bradley | Jason Collins | Zach Randolph | Brendan Haywood | Joseph Forte | Jeryl Sasser | Brandon Armstrong | Raul Lopez | Gerald Wallace | Jamaal Tinsley | Tony Parker |
Second Round Trenton Hassell | Gilbert Arenas| Omar Cook | Will Solomon | Terence Morris | Brian Scalabrine | Jeff Trepagnier | Damone Brown | Mehmet Okur | Michael Wright | Earl Watson | Jamison Brewer | Bobby Simmons | Eric Chenowith | Kyle Hill | Sean Lampley | Loren Woods | Ousmane Cisse | Antonis Fotsis | Ken Johnson | Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje | Alton Ford | Andre Huston | Jarron Collins | Kenny Satterfield | Maurice Jeffers | Robertas Javtokas | Alvin Jones | Bryan Bracey