More questions than answers Tests still inconclusive, so cautious Bulls will sit frustrated Curry

The announcement that center Eddy Curry will be sidelined for theremainder of the regular season and the playoffs was about the onlydefinitive news to come out of the Bulls' half-hour news conferenceThursday night.

There has been no final diagnosis of the irregular heartbeat Currysuffered two weeks ago, and he will continue to undergo testing onhis heart for six more weeks.

While Curry, 22, said he's not overly concerned, the Bulls aretaking a cautious approach.

"Our goal throughout this process has been to rule out anypossibility of increased risk to Eddy Curry's long-term health byplaying basketball," general manager John Paxson said. "As of today,the results still remain inconclusive. Unfortunately, the next stepis more tests.

"We all know what a huge impact Eddy provided for our club thisyear, but Eddy's long-term health is now and always has been our toppriority."

Since first experiencing the irregular heartbeat before a game inCharlotte on March 30, Curry has undergone a series of cardiac testsat a Charlotte hospital and Rush University Medical Center. He alsotraveled to Boston and Minneapolis for tests in the last week.

"Unfortunately, these tests have come back favorably but yetinconclusive," team physician Brian Cole said. "As difficult as thatmay be to understand, this is a complicated issue when you're dealingwith the heart. So in order to make sure that Eddy is safe to play,it's been determined by our cardiac experts that it will take anadditional six weeks to have a conclusion to this where we can allfeel comfortable that Eddy is safe to return to the court."

Kathy Weber, another team doctor, said none of the tests hasrevealed any sort of problem and the preliminary diagnosis is thatCurry suffered a "non-sustained ventricular tachycardia" or anarrhythmia.

"Although everything has been positive, we still have someunanswered questions," Weber said. "Until we have that completely putto rest, we have opted to do further testing."

Curry, who recently told teammate Tyson Chandler that he felt likea "lab rat" during the testing, said Thursday that he is frustratedby the lengthy process and by not being able to play but understandsthe team's cautious approach.

"I definitely feel confident that I'll be back," said Curry, whowas joined by his mother and fiancee. "That's why I'm not stressedout about it. I see a lot of people, and when they see me, theyexpect me to be depressed and down about it. At this point, there'snothing to be depressed about. That's only going to make thesituation worse.

"Right now, I just have to be strong with myself and my family andmy teammates. This is no time for people to be worrying about it. Myteammates have to go out there and get the job done. Worry about meafter the season."

The timing of Curry being sidelined couldn't be worse. Besides theBulls on the verge of their first playoff appearance in seven years,Curry, who leads the team in scoring with a 16.1-point average, willbe a restricted free agent after this season looking for a big-money, long-term contract. He was asked if he was worried that thismight affect his free agency.

"He's a restricted free agent," Paxson jumped in. "Everybody wantsto make him an unrestricted free agent. He's a restricted free agent,and that puts the ball in our court. He's going to be back."

"Eddy's been very patient with everything. I know he's beenfrustrated. I respect very much that he wants to be back on thefloor. Based on what we know, we all want to be confident thateverything's going to work out. Hopefully, in six weeks, we can sithere and say he's good to go."

No one will be happier to hear that news than Curry. He has hadenough tests to last a lifetime.

"It's terrible, terrible -- and I hate needles, too," he said. "Ihave a lot of tattoos, but I hate needles. It's definitely somethingI don't want to go through again, so this is why I'm really takingthis time to do every single test possible so we can just really tryto get this behind us, and hopefully I don't have to do this again."

Although no cause has been found, the doctors said prescriptiondrugs, supplements and Curry's dramatic weight loss last summer havebeen eliminated as possibilities.

"Arrhythmias can be benign and they can be dangerous, so itdepends on what kind of an arrhythmia you're talking about," Webersaid. "In this case, [it] appears to be a benign arrhythmia."

Paxson said the cautious approach is the only way the Bulls couldhave approached the situation given what could be at stake if thereis a problem.

"Let's be honest, things go through your mind," Paxson said."There have been athletes that have had issues and things havehappened.

All of these things, we're confident we're ruling out. No one cansit here and say things don't cross your mind, but we're going tofocus on these next six weeks and the testing we have to do and thenwe'll have our answers. We're all confident that day's going to be apositive one."