Curry says NYC, Knicks hurt career

Eddy Curry, the poster player for Isiah Thomas’ mistakes as Knicks president, said bad influences and dumb decisions doomed his stint in the Big Apple.

Speaking in a Facebook video released Thursday by The Players’ Tribune, the former center and fourth overall pick opened up about his infidelities and indicated the Knicks environment was more enabling of poor behavior than supportive of good.

Curry was traded from Chicago — near his Illinois hometown — to the Knicks in 2005, when he was 22. Curry then became teammates with Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Matt Barnes.

“In New York, though, it was different. It was way different,” Curry, 37, said in the docuseries ‘So …You Want to Know the Real Story.’ “The things people got into in New York was totally different from Chicago. Because these guys were personalities. They’d go to Phillippe Chow or something like that and spend $2,000 on a meal where in Chicago, when I was in Chicago, I’m eating at Harold’s Chicken. I’m spending $8 on a meal.

“When it was good, it was great. When I needed a fan or needed somebody to be like, ‘Hey man we got you because you’re a New York Knick,’ it wasn’t like that. At that point I was just going out and hanging out and doing stupid s—t like messing with women and s—t. A kid like me, I was seeing all the bad shit they was doing, like okay, this is how you do that? This is how you cheat?”

Curry showed promise after signing a six-year, $60 million contract with the Knicks, but quickly spiraled into the toilet with concerns over his weight and commitment. He lost his money and fell into debt. Curry said he was too trusting and even had one friend secretly place his name on the players’ life insurance.

He was sued in 2009 by his driver for harassment and back wages. Among the allegations against Curry were him dropping his pants, making lewd remarks, using racial and religious epithets and brandishing a gun. Curry said the lawsuit was a sham.

“This dude was my driver, he was hella cool, hella down to earth, he was telling me his story. And I was like, ‘You know what I’m going to give this dude a chance — I want you to be my driver,’” Curry said. “And then he took moments where I would be like, ‘Man, kiss my ass you ain’t do that stop playing.’ He took that and put that in legal documents like, ‘On this day Mr. Curry told me to kiss his ass.’ And then the court looked and that said, ‘Yeah, you should pay him because you created a harmful environment.’ And then I had to pay him $300,000.”

Curry also addressed the 2009 murders of his ex-girlfriend, Nova Henry, and their 10-month-old daughter, Ava Curry. Eddy Curry was still with the Knicks — although inactive at the time — and learned about the tragedy during a game.

Curry said he had never met his daughter, Ava, before her murder and the affair was unknown to his wife, Candice. Still, Curry was determined to fly to Chicago immediately following the tragedy and couldn’t afford a flight.

Teammate Quentin Richardson came to the rescue.

“My credit card couldn’t hold the flight. I remember it being like $13,000. Only person I could call was Q and he put it on his card, and I gave it back to him,” Curry said. “And he put 13 grand on his card for me to get a private flight out for me to see the bodies and go be with them. That was the first time I seen my daughter.”