‘Baby Shaq’ took over Bulls after Michael Jordan left but lost $70m earnings and $3.7m mansion

Eddy Curry grew up wanting to be a gymnast, and only started playing basketball in the seventh grade.

After a dominant high school career saw him named Illinois Mr. Basketball, he entered the 2001 NBA Draft straight from high school.

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The Chicago Bulls came calling with the fourth overall pick, and after logging limited minutes as a rookie, Curry led the league by shooting 58.5 percent of his field goals in Year 2.

It was the first time a Chicago star topped a major statistical category since the great Michael Jordan in 1998.

How much money did Eddy Curry make from NBA career?

After a controversial episode saw the Bulls ask him to take a genetic test to determine if he had a heart condition, Curry joined the New York Knicks in 2005 on a $60 million contract.

But in the Big Apple, he struggled with his fitness before ending up on the 2012 Miami Heat roster that won the NBA Finals.

By the time he left the Dallas Mavericks for China in 2012, Curry had earned an estimated $70m in 11 seasons.

During that time, the 7ft center played more than 400 games, and racked up 6,820 points, 2,725 rebounds and 384 blocks.

But despite making millions in the league, Curry struggled with debts, and his $3.7m Chicago mansion was foreclosed while he was still under an NBA contract.

In 2026, that property was re-sold for more than $2m less than he first paid for it.

How did Eddy Curry lose his millions?

“At some point, I kinda fell in love with helping people. I couldn’t say no,” he explained of his lost fortune in The Players Tribune.

“I could not listen to somebody crying on the phone, telling me something was wrong, and just know or feel like this money could help them.

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“So I was like, ‘Hey bro, I got you; what, you need, $1,500? I got you, they’d be like, ‘$1,500 would do, but if you had $3,000, that’d be better,’ and I’m like, ‘I got you.’

“When you’re doing that to 15 different people, it adds up.”

The Thornwood High School standout was dubbed ‘Baby Shaq’ when he entered the NBA as his playing style resembled Shaquille O’Neal.

But as Curry’s career started to unfurl, Shaq had his say on the comparisons after his ‘second coming’ failed to make the impact many predicted.

“He hasn’t come close,” O’Neal said.

“I don’t want to say anything that is going to hurt his feelings, but I don’t know what is going on with him.

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“In this league, when you’re touted as something and in your mind you don’t think you’re that, then you either got to put up numbers or you got to play the game.

“I was a little big but I was still putting up historical numbers.

“If he wants to get that next contract he’s going to have to go to the New York Athletic Club three times a day and just ride the bike.”

‘Baby Shaq’ struggled with pressure of NBA

Curry struggled to live up to the hype, especially after going straight from high school into the league.

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“When I first got drafted, I didn’t hit up any clubs. I was too young to get in,” he once explained.

“Back then, I was just psyched that I could head over to Great America with all my friends and ride some roller coasters.

“I was all about being able to snag the newest video games to play Xbox with my buddies from back home.

“I had no idea how to manage money or protect myself from scammers or build a loving, monogamous relationship or…. how to be a good man — a good, solid, reliable, trustworthy man.

“I wish I had known. And maybe you could even say that I should have known. But I honestly just didn’t.”

Curry, who now has an estimated net worth of $3m, uses the hard lessons he learned to educate the next generation about the pitfalls of fame.

Eddy Curry using experience to help next generation of NBA stars

“I really kind of made my new life talking about my journey and my trials and tribulations,” he told the NBA three years ago.

“Speaking to players, young athletes trying to come up who may encounter some of the things I did, trying to help them make better decisions.

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“Trying to help them deal with everything that comes with being a star or standout athlete. It’s tough; a lot of pressure comes with that, pressure from your family and friends.

“Who’s my real friend and who is not my real friend? They are dealing with the same issues and now with social media. A lot of stuff happened in my life.

“It was in the papers, but a lot wasn’t. Now it’s crazy dealing with that, helping these guys understand they are the CEO of their company. Don’t be your worst enemy.”

More recently Curry — who serves in a Player Operations role for the National Basketball Players Association — has revealed an alleged ploy used by women on social media to extort players.

In an instructional course for this year’s rookie class called ‘Trust Issues,’ he showed the young players several Instagram accounts, and asked them to figure out which ones were real and fake.

Curry then revealed that every Instagram account shown to the rookie class was not only fake, but that each one had stolen money from players in the past.

He detailed an alleged scheme in which a woman can find out a player’s interests, based on their social media activity, and use that information to present a front that would appeal to them.

“They can see the type of girl you like, and they’ll create a profile based off of that,” Curry told the Out the Mud podcast.

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“So when they reach out to you, it’s like…you gon’ hit ’em back.”

After that interaction, Curry revealed the accounts will suggest a FaceTime, which works for the NBA star because it can serve as a means of authenticity.

However, there is apparently a sinister motive at play.

“They screenshot you,” Curry explained.

“They’ll take their picture off, and put some s*** up there. Some bullshit, and then they’ll hit you, like, ‘Hey, if you don’t want this to come out, you gotta pay me.'”

All these years on from his $70m NBA career, Curry is certainly more street smart than he was back then.

His experience, and life lessons, will no doubt help stop future generations from going through the pain that he did.

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