New Bulls GM Wants Ben Gordon Back

Says re-signing Bulls guard is top priority

By TOM FORNELLI

Updated 2:30 PM CST, Sat, May 23, 2009

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This week there was a lot going on in Chicago sports. The Cubs are mired in the middle of a five-game losing streak in which their offense seems to be having its own recession, the Sox swung and missed on acquiring Jake Peavy, and the Blackhawks are battling for their lives against the Detroit Red Wings. Perhaps more important than anything, our city's savior Jay Cutler has been practicing with the Bears and looks oh so pretty in that Bears uniform.

Lost in the shuffle of all this madness was the fact that John Paxson officially stepped down as general manager of the Bulls and Gar Forman stepped in. It seems that getting knocked out of the playoffs, no matter how amazing a series you played, pushes you to the backburner very quickly in the Windy City.

Still, the Bulls do exist and they do have plenty of questions going into their offseason. They're preparing for this summer's draft where hopefully they'll be able to find a big man that can help on the offensive glass -- Pitt's DeJuan Blair anybody? -- and they also have the Ben Gordon situation to settle. Keep him or let him go? It's a question that divides the city's Bulls fans, but their new general manager knows what he wants to do.

Re-signing guard Ben Gordon will be the top priority of new Chicago Bulls general manager Gar Forman heading into the offseason.

Forman met with reporters on Thursday, a day after being promoted to his new position, and he said he believes Gordon wants to stay in Chicago.

"There's still a lot of steps until we get to that point," Forman added.

Whether you want him here next season or not, the fact of the matter is that we don't have any say in the matter. It's a decision that belongs to the Bulls and Ben Gordon. Now that Forman has made it clear he'd like to bring Gordon back, the onus lies more on BG at this point.

Gordon has said he'd like to be back, but he's also going to test the market. How much of a market there will be for him remains to be seen. Odds are he'll get plenty of interest, but not the dollars he's hoping for and has already been offered by the Bulls twice.

We can't see into the future or anything, but something tells us Gordon will be back on the west side next season lighting up scoreboards and driving fans crazy all at the same time.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.