After nearly two full summers of negotiations, Ben Gordon threw in the towel and agreed to the one-year qualifying offer late in the evening on Oct. 1.
That means Gordon will be paid $6.4 million this season, become an unrestricted free agent next summer and in the meantime, he cannot be traded without his consent. "At the end of the day, Ben shouldn't sign a deal he's not comfortable with," general manager John Paxson said. "Because then you sign something and if you're not totally happy with it, you're always thinking about that. He's a Bull for now, which is great for us, because we need his ability on the floor."
Gordon turned down a five-year, $50 million extension last year. This time, the Bulls held firm on a six-year deal worth around $54-55 million and refused to go any higher because they are on the verge of paying the luxury tax, which is triggered when a team's payroll reaches $71.5 million.
Obviously, Gordon was disappointed in the offer. He's led the Bulls in scoring for the past three years, but was offered significantly less than the $71 million given to forward Luol Deng in August. The biggest reason for that is as an undersized shooting guard, Gordon can have a tough time matching up defensively.
"I can go into a long list of things I'm surprised about that didn't happen, but that's neither here nor there," Gordon said. "I'm just going to go out and play."
Asked if he'd be open to re-signing with the Bulls next year, Gordon felt it was too soon to say, while Paxson held out hope for such a possibility.
Few NBA players have taken the qualifying offer. The most notable are Michael Olowokandi, Stromile Swift, Vladimir Radmanovic and Mickael Pietrus. All of those players changed teams after becoming a free agent and none has been paid more than the mid-level exception (currently worth $5.6 million).
