Enter the basement of Eddy Curry’s north suburban home and the pinball machine, video games, pool table and big-screen television remind you that Curry is, after all, still a big kid.
Then watch Curry’s 11-month-old son, Reign, waddle over with a huge smile. The ease with which Curry scoops him up and hugs him lets another side of the Bulls’ center emerge.
Such are the conflicting sides of Curry that Bulls management types alternately shake their heads and smile a knowing smile.
Some games they see a bona fide, dominant NBA center, one around whom the franchise can be built. Other games, like the one he played on Monday against Washington, Curry looks tentative and lost and only three seasons removed from high school, which he is.
No matter what, though, much of the hope for the Bulls’ future revolves around Curry, 21, who sat down recently for an off-the-court look at himself.
The past . . .
Tribune: What’s your favorite childhood sports memory?
Curry: I remember watching Deion Sanders and the touchdown dance that he would do. He was my favorite athlete. He made me want to play football growing up, but I wasn’t good enough. And then in high school, my basketball coach wouldn’t let me play football.
CT: Best sport growing up?
EC: Gymnastics. I wanted to be a stunt man growing up. I wasn’t good at basketball. I did stuff like the Jesse White Tumblers do, flipping over mats and jumping off things. Where I grew up [in Calumet City], we didn’t have gyms to go to. We had to use what we had, old mattresses out in the alley, that kind of stuff. We would put them on the ground and do crazy stuff.
CT: When did you know you could turn pro in basketball?
EC: A lot of people started talking about it my junior year. But it wasn’t until I started seeing B.J. [Armstrong] and [Jerry] Krause at my games my senior year that I knew for sure.
The present . . .
CT: What’s your favorite material possession?
EC: I can’t say my two sons? I have this chain from this summer, when me and Jamal [Crawford] played on a team sponsored by [rapper] Jay-Z at the Rucker League [in Harlem]. It has a symbol from Jay-Z’s label, Roc-A-Fella, and it has a lot of diamonds and it’s nice.
CT: What’s in your CD player?
EC: Jay-Z. “The Black Album.” Jay-Z is the greatest artist ever to grace the microphone. I like his whole persona. Everybody was crazy about 50 Cent. But Jay-Z has been consistent for 10, 11 years.
CT: What’s in your DVD player?
EC: “Out of Time,” with Denzel Washington.
CT: Who would you pay to see play in the NBA?
EC: Allen Iverson. My favorite player is Shaq, but it looks easy to Shaq. Allen earns every basket he gets, and he’s fun to watch.
The future . . .
CT: Where do you see yourself in five seasons?
EC: I definitely see myself as an NBA All-Star and us in the playoffs. I’d like to say winning an NBA title, but that’s kind of far-fetched right now. But I definitely see us in the playoffs and I see myself leading the way.
CT: Where do you see yourself after the NBA?
EC: I can’t see that far. I see myself in the NBA forever (laughs). I’m just playing with you. I might take a couple of years off and then try to be a coach. I can’t be away from the game forever. I love it too much. I won’t sit around and count my millions. That’s how you lose them.
DEFINING NUMBER
4.5
Career per game rebounding average for the 6-11 center. Curry averaged 3.8 as a rookie, 4.4 in 2002-03 and is at 6.1 this season. In his 187-game Bulls career, Curry has averaged one rebound for every 4.4 minutes of action. In 34 games this year, Curry has had five games with double-digit rebounds (high of 14; career high 15) but 19 in which he had five or fewer (a low of 2 three times).
