Ben Gordon Missed the Boat

Last summer, Ben Gordon was offered a 5-year, $50M contract extension from the Chicago Bulls but whined that as the team’s leading scorer, that wasn’t enough.  Now its only a few weeks from camp and Gordon’s contract status is still in limbo.  He still thinks he deserves something similar to the $71M deal the Bulls recently gave to Luol Deng, but the Bulls disagree.

As a restricted free agent, his options are limited.  He can sign an offer sheet with another team – which the Bulls can match – but no one with ample cap space remaining (read: Memphis Grizzlies) is willing to pony up for his services.  Or he can force a sign-and-trade, but again, no one wants to pay him a penny more than the Bulls already offered and he rejected.  It appears his contract demands are too absurd for any NBA team to consider for the streaky combo guard from UConn.

Now, with Gordon already saying he will refuse to sign the Bulls’ qualifying offer of $6.4M to play out the season and become an unrestricted free agent next summer, he has extremely limited options – and has now shifted his focus over to CSKA Moscow with talks of a 1 year, $5.5M deal on the table.

How hilariously embarrassing would this be for Gordon?  His dream of starring in the NBA will be derailed, while he sips on vodka every night realizing that he passed on a ‘mere’ $50M contract offer because he delusionally thought he was already a superstar.

While Andre Iguodala and Emeka Okafor passed on similar $50M offers last summer, only to get more money this year, it appears this was a critical mistake by the Gordon Camp, as he will now have to play it out in Russia, or crawl back to the Bulls with his tail between his legs for a much smaller deal.

(Image: NBA.com)