Eddy, could you please try?

Glancing at the Knicks-Warriors box score, something caught my eye. Eddy Curry has never been known for his rebounding prowess, but this year things seemed to be even worse. In 28 mpg, Eddy Curry just barely averages 5 rebounds per game. For a guard or a small forward, those are good numbers. For a 6'11'', 285 (probably more like 315) lbs center, that is awful. Tonight, EC managed 4 rebounds against one of the thinnest frontlines in the NBA, in a game that featured 97 missed field goals.

The average Knicks game includes 160 field goal attempts. Prorating those numbers to 28 minutes, Eddy Curry is in there for 93 field goal attempts every night. The combined field goal percentage of the Knicks and their opponents is 45.5%, which means that there are roughly 51 rebounds available in Eddy Curry's playing time. And somehow, he only gets 5 of them. He's bigger than anybody he plays not named Shaquille O'Neal or Yao Ming, and yet he can only grab one in every 10 rebounds made available to him.

Now, I could find a way to excuse Curry for his poor production if he played alongside an athletic freak like Dwight Howard, a rebounding monster like Carlos Boozer or a desperate, high-energy rookie like Sean Williams. However, Curry mostly shares the froncourt with Zach Randolph, who can barely clear Fon du Lac's phone book leaping off two feet, Quentin Richardson, who's 6'6'', and David Lee, who is severely undersized as well. And still, Curry sucks at rebounding. Some frontcourt players use their face-up game as a reason behind their small rebounding numbers, since they're usually away from the paint. However, Curry's next long jumper will be his first this year, so that line of thought is thrown out as well.

I will not go into a detailed scouting report into why Curry doesn't crash the boards very effectively, because there is absolutely no need to look at it in any depth; Eddy Curry doesn't rebound because he doesn't want it. Period. No ifs or buts about it. He has the body to average double digit rebounds. He has the agility, surprising as it may seem from a look at his physique, to average double digit rebounds. He has the soft hands to average double digits rebounds. And if he doesn't have the playing time to average double digit rebounds, it's because he lacks the desire to average double digit rebounds.

I'll now give you the cold, hard evidence;

- Andris Biedrins, a card-carrying member of Skin and Bones Inc., went off for a career-high 26 rebounds against the Knicks

- Reggie Evans averages 12 rebounds against the Knicks, 8 against everybody else

- When the Lakers visited MSG, Kobe Bryant corraled 11 rebounds. Eddy Curry picked up one.

- Eddy Curry has two double digit rebounds performances all season. Jason Kidd, 7 inches shorter, has 16.

- Bonzi Wells averages as many rebounds in 4 fewer minutes. Bonzi Wells is a 6'5'', chubby shooting guard who plays alongside Yao Ming, Chuck Hayes, Luis Scola and Carl Landry.

Eddy, if you want to live up to your considerable potential, earn at least a quarter of your ridiculous salary and maybe, just maybe, one day take the Knicks to the playoffs, there is only one thing you have to do; want it. Go ahead, try it. Maybe you'll even like it enough to become the dominant low-post presence we all envisioned a few years ago.