Ben Gordon was born in London, and when his parents split up he moved with his mother to Mt. Vernon, N.Y. He was raised in modest surroundings with a sister, a grandmother and an aunt, and they lived on his mother’s salary as a secretary.
Luol Deng grew up in Sudan and in Egypt, where he played soccer with a tennis ball using rocks and bags for the goal, and later moved to England to escape the strife in Africa.
By all accounts they are hard-working, humble young men. Gordon used his first pro salary to buy a car for his mother, and Deng learned still another language, French, in an online course this summer because his sister lives in France and Deng wants to be able to communicate with her children in their language.
This while he traveled, often on cut-rate airlines jockeying for an aisle seat, to play basketball and help give England a chance to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.
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So you wonder how it is that Gordon and Deng could be saying no to earning $10 million a year in the NBA.
But that’s apparently the situation. The Bulls’ two highest-scoring players and possible All-Stars are without contract extensions, and that looks to be the major issue facing the team as training camp opened this week.
It’s hardly a desperate issue. Under NBA rules, both players are committed to the Bulls for two more seasons. If they don’t sign extensions by the end of October, they would become restricted free agents after the season. The Bulls have the right to match any offer, and in doing so with Chris Duhon and Andres Nocioni the last few years, they have sent word around the NBA that they will not lose players.
Still, the situation is a concern because it might be the first major test of the Bulls’ philosophy. They invest in highly motivated, committed players, gym rats whose love for the game transcends the usual pettiness and ego that pervade the NBA, and it has worked wonderfully thus far.
If one or both players don’t get extensions, will they pout? Become selfish scorers trying to get their averages up for a contract? Slack off on defense to save themselves for offense?
Or will they go out and play, understanding that the better the team does, the better it will be for them? And that they eventually will be paid?
But how can you come from nothing and spurn $10 million? Per year?
That is the ocean of disconnect between fans and NBA players — and most, if not all, pro athletes, for that matter.
They have these dream jobs that enable them to be paid like that. And they want more?
But this goes on everywhere. In your job and mine. At a lesser principal, but with the same principle.
We sportswriters have these fantasy jobs. We sit up close at the biggest events and then talk to the players about what we’ve seen. People pay thousands of dollars in charity auctions to do this once. We do it all the time. And then someone who we are sure isn’t as good gets a raise or a better job, and we are furious and want to quit.
I’ve never been to a gathering of media people at which almost everyone wasn’t complaining about their jobs or their colleagues.
I’m not sure where the Bulls are with Gordon and Deng. But I’m guessing they have offered $10 million or $11 million per season. They certainly want to re-sign both players. Kirk Hinrich signed for $9.5 million last year. The Bulls held firm at that number because they wanted to create a base for negotiating with Deng and Gordon, both bigger scorers.
It’s likely Deng and Gordon have asked for substantially more. That’s the way negotiating works.
In the end, how do you say no to $9.5 million a year? Especially when you risk injury by not signing and there are so few teams below the salary cap.
What many players don’t understand is that it’s not whether you are better than the guy who just signed for $13 million. It’s whether some other team can pay that. It’s not clear if any team could after this season.
And because the Bulls have a reputation for matching offers, it’s unlikely a team would even try to get one of the Bulls’ restricted free agents. That’s playing out in Cleveland, too, where regulars Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao aren’t in camp.
So you pay them what they want?
Fine, but if Deng and Gordon both were to get deals averaging substantially more than $10 million a year, it would cut deeply into the Bulls’ ability to add other players or make changes. Heck, Michael Jordan took a $100,000 cut in pay in 1990, when that was a lot of money, so the Bulls could sign another player.
Could Deng or Gordon say no to $10 million a year? How much higher would the Bulls go? What is the least they would take? How would playing as free agents affect them and the team — if at all?
The games and practices during the next month are the least important issues facing the Bulls.
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