Big Shot Ben is now a Big Shot
Gordon agrees to a 5-year $55 million deal with Pistons
Updated 10:45 AM CST, Thu, Jul 2, 2009
Brian Hanley of the Sun Times reports:
The courtship was short. The contract was sweet.
Ben Gordon's whirlwind trip to Detroit on Wednesday ended with the now former Bulls star verbally agreeing to a five-year, $55 million deal with the Pistons.
A source said the Bulls inquired about the Detroit offer, but were not given a chance to match by Gordon and his agent, Raymond Brothers.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva, a former Gordon teammate at Connecticut, also met with Dumars and reportedly agreed to a five-year, $35 million deal.
Gordon, whom the Bulls drafted in 2004 with the third overall pick, declined the Bulls' six-year, $54 million offer last summer when he was a restricted free agent. Gordon wanted to take that deal at the deadline, but the Bulls pulled the offer off the table and he signed a one-year qualifying offer of $6.4 million.
The Detroit deal bested the five-year, $50 million contract the Bulls offered him in the summer of 2007.
Gordon will sign his Detroit contract Wednesday, the first day allowed by rule after the league and players association agreed on the salary cap and luxury tax for the 2009-10 season.
Bulls general manager Gar Forman declined to comment until Gordon officially signs with the Pistons.
Attempts to reach Gordon were unsuccessful. Gordon said in May he hoped to remain with the Bulls, but the odds were long given the team's $68 million in salaries already committed next season, when the salary cap is expected to be set at approximately $69 million.
The Bulls' policy is not to exceed the salary cap and be subject to the league's dollar-for-dollar luxury tax for exceeding the cap.
''I know what I have here,'' Gordon said recently. ''I love all my teammates. I love this city. So I definitely, in an ideal world, would like to be back here. That's the way I felt the last two summers and [a long-term contract] hasn't happened.''
Gordon averaged 18.5 points and shot 41.5 percent on three-pointers in his Bulls career. He became the first player in NBA history to win the Sixth Man of the Year award as a rookie in 2005.
With expiring contracts after the upcoming season, the Bulls will have about $25 million in salary-cap room next summer when the free-agent class will be the best in history with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer and Joe Johnson.
Losing Gordon to the rival Pistons will not be easy for Bulls fans. But Detroit's Dumars, who fired coach Michael Curry on Tuesday, had $19 million in cap room with which to work.
''We're definitely in the mode of reshaping our roster,'' Dumars said last week. ''We need to add about three or four talented players by drafting them, signing them or trading for them.''
Dumars is expected to replace Curry with either former Bulls coach Doug Collins or former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson.
First Published: Jul 2, 2009 10:33 AM CST
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