NBA players now rarely come into the league very young considering that they can no longer be drafted out of high school but there was a time when 18-year-olds were coming into the league and making a lot of money at a very young age. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are prime examples of players who never went to college and made their way directly to the league.
But these legends weren’t the only ones who came into the league at 18. Several other players did so in that era, including Eddy Curry. Curry was chosen with the 4th overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in 2001 as the team was fresh off the Michael Jordan era and itching to reclaim their crown.
He came into the league and signed a $14 million contract, which was quite a bit of money at the time, especially for a youngster. He recently spoke about this in an interview with DJ Vlad.
“It was crazy, man. Honestly, I wanted to go No. 2 because I wanted to go play with the Clippers, man. I was a huge fan of Q, and a huge fan of Darius Miles, I was like I wanna go play with them.
“But when you that young, man, all you really thinking about is, you just wanna hoop… I was like, I was ready to make a name for myself… That’s really what I was thinking about.
“It (the contract) was a lot, nothing like they getting right now, but it was a lot for then for sure. That was crazy. It wasn’t like that’s why I was doing it. At that point, you’re so caught up in trying to be the best… I really wasn’t thinking about the money because all you really want is some dope shoes and some dope clothes and I had all of that already. To me, I had already made it.”
When players come into the league, it’s the idea of making history that likely inspires them more than the money they will make, which is also a factor. Curry’s story is something that a lot of NBA stars can surely relate to, after all, no one can make it to that level of basketball without thinking they’re the best. And in Eddy’s case, he did lose some of that money in some unexpected ways, so it possibly matters even lesser now.
