[libertyfan4life]

I had thought the FF Board for this Basketball Section had been somewhat slow so I'd post.

Kind of random, but has anyone heard about last weeks Eric Gordon trade from the LA Clippers to the New Orleans Hornets? As most of you know, Eric Gordon is the older brother of the former Flame Evan Gordon.

I had heard that the NBA trade originally involved Charlotte, but changed in time to New Orleans.

Maybe, I find it sort of ironic that Evan Gordon had specified the reasoning behind his transferring from Liberty to Arizona State was "to be close to his brother Eric on the West Coast;" and then big brother Eric a couple months later ends up being shipped East to New Orleans.

There is no conspiracy theory being proposed here. Just thought it was interesting. Any thoughts?! Or, do most of you bid RIP to Evan Gordan?

I've attached an interesting article below.

Eric Gordon says Clippers lied to him about trade
By Marc J. Spears
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=m ... nba_010412
1/4/2012

The Los Angeles Clippers celebrated their trade for Chris Paul as a landmark moment for the woeful franchise. Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman can be excused for not joining in the celebration. The two players were sent to the New Orleans Hornets as part of the deal – just two days after Clippers officials told them they would not be traded.

And while Gordon and Kaman are excited about the opportunity to start over with the Hornets, they aren’t too happy with their former team.

“All you do is take the man’s word and take that he said that no one is going to go anywhere,” Gordon told Yahoo! Sports. “… To completely lie like that is something unprofessional.

After trade talks with the Hornets stalled Dec. 12, Clippers general manager Neil Olshey and coach Vinny Del Negro gathered the team’s players who had guaranteed contracts and told them the franchise planned to move forward with its current group. Gordon and Kaman now think they were deceived. Olshey disagrees.

“I’m not deceptive enough to look players in the eye and tell them something that is not true,” Olshey said. “And I can tell you from an ownership level, the president of our company, myself, we made a corporate decision Monday morning that when the deal didn’t go through on Sunday night we would no longer pursue the trade. And that’s when we notified our players, to get the elephant out of the room during our abbreviated training camp.”

Later that same day, the Clippers claimed veteran point guard Chauncey Billups off amnesty waivers. Olshey said he was surprised to receive a call the following day from the Hornets – or NBA officials orchestrating the trade for the Hornets – wanting to restart trade talks. On Dec. 14, the Clippers agreed to send Gordon, Kaman, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ unprotected 2012 first-round draft pick for Paul and a pair of future second-round choices. Gordon, a talented young guard, and the T’wolves’ draft pick were considered the Clippers’ most coveted trade assets. The Clippers were able to retain injured young point guard Eric Bledsoe.

“They came back to us with what we felt like was a more appropriate compensation package and we decided to do the deal,” Olshey said.

Said Gordon: “They literally told me as an organization that they wanted to keep me, and [the trade still] went down?”

News of the trade broke via Twitter and other social media outlets while Gordon and Kaman were at community events with Clippers season-ticket holders. Gordon found out while he was on a bus for the event and tweeted, “Wow.” Kaman found out from his real-estate agent’s son.

“He said, ‘Hey, you got traded.’ I was like, ‘C’mon,’ ” Kaman said. “Then everyone started talking to me like, ‘Hey, what happened?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ Then my agent wasn’t calling me. I couldn’t get ahold of him. Then Farouq talked to his agent and said it was done.

“The Clippers didn’t tell me anything. They didn’t tell me I was traded or nothing after eight years. They didn’t have the guts to come tell me they traded me.”

Olshey said he and Del Negro were in the lobby of the Clippers’ practice facility waiting for the players to return from the events to discuss the trade.

“Unfortunately in today’s social media it didn’t matter if they were home, on a bus, shootaround, out to dinner,” Olshey said. “We would never get to them before other people got to them or it ended up on Twitter.”

Olshey also says the Clippers were hesitant about keeping the players updated on the status of the trade talks because the Los Angeles Lakers thought they had a deal to acquire Paul only to have NBA commissioner David Stern veto it. The Lakers and Houston Rockets then had to repair relationships with the players involved in the proposed trade. One of the reasons the Lakers said they traded Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks was because Odom was upset about being included in the Paul talks.

The Los Angeles Clippers celebrated their trade for Chris Paul as a landmark moment for the woeful franchise. Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman can be excused for not joining in the celebration. The two players were sent to the New Orleans Hornets as part of the deal – just two days after Clippers officials told them they would not be traded.

And while Gordon and Kaman are excited about the opportunity to start over with the Hornets, they aren’t too happy with their former team.

“All you do is take the man’s word and take that he said that no one is going to go anywhere,” Gordon told Yahoo! Sports. “… To completely lie like that is something unprofessional.”

Eric Gordon says Clippers officials told him they would not trade him to the Hornets.

After trade talks with the Hornets stalled Dec. 12, Clippers general manager Neil Olshey and coach Vinny Del Negro gathered the team’s players who had guaranteed contracts and told them the franchise planned to move forward with its current group. Gordon and Kaman now think they were deceived. Olshey disagrees.

“I’m not deceptive enough to look players in the eye and tell them something that is not true,” Olshey said. “And I can tell you from an ownership level, the president of our company, myself, we made a corporate decision Monday morning that when the deal didn’t go through on Sunday night we would no longer pursue the trade. And that’s when we notified our players, to get the elephant out of the room during our abbreviated training camp.”

Later that same day, the Clippers claimed veteran point guard Chauncey Billups off amnesty waivers. Olshey said he was surprised to receive a call the following day from the Hornets – or NBA officials orchestrating the trade for the Hornets – wanting to restart trade talks. On Dec. 14, the Clippers agreed to send Gordon, Kaman, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ unprotected 2012 first-round draft pick for Paul and a pair of future second-round choices. Gordon, a talented young guard, and the T’wolves’ draft pick were considered the Clippers’ most coveted trade assets. The Clippers were able to retain injured young point guard Eric Bledsoe.

[jbock13]

I don't think it was about his brother. Maybe it was, but he probably just wanted to play some place else. If so, he just should have been honest about it. It's not like I blame him.

[Purple Haize]

I was glad when Gordon left.......IU. He is a cancer.
He is also a cry baby. The NBA is a business. You were told you wouldn't be traded bc the deal fell through. Then there was a new deal. He is getting paid millions.put on your Man Pants and play ball
On an unrelated note, how bad is NOLA when someone from the CLIPPERS thinks it's a step down. THE CLIPPERS!

[olldflame]

I would tend to agree that being closer to Eric in LA was probably at most a secondary reason for Evan's transfer to AZ State, but it is still rather ironic that now he is farther from New Orleans than he would have been if he had stayed at LU.

[libertyfan4life]

I was a student athlete in college. This might sound bold but IMHO at times I've often viewed transfering often like a divorce and remarriage situation. In terms of finding the right or perfect fit, post splitsville, it's often better to do things right the first go around. I'm glad Evan Gordon is gone. He seemed to bring some toxicity to the team. IMHO I doubt that he will turn out to be the type of player that he thinks he is. I guess time will tell.