John Paxson addressed the media on September 29th, 2008 as part of the Bulls’ media day. He took the time to discuss the Ben Gordon negotiations with the press.

John Paxson:

Well as of right now, we’ve talked to Raymond Brothers again today. We’re still seeing if there is a way to come to some resolution, so, I will be talking to Raymond after I get out of here. It’s going to be one thing or the other. Ben has until Wednesday to sign the qualifying offer, so he has that option, and until then we can talk and try to see if there is any common ground. It’s still is where it’s been all summer, right now. We’ll see.

Like I said the other day, as of right now, we have anticipated that Ben would sign the qualifying offer. And with that said, he is still a very valuable member of our team. My opinion, it’s just always hard when you have a player that you like as much as I like Ben, and we as an organization like Ben. When it comes to negotiating a deal, you have a difference of opinion, is what it’s come down to money wise. But it doesn’t, in my opinion doesn’t lessen his value to us and us trying to win basketball games.

If that is the route he ultimately goes comes Wednesday he will be an unrestricted free agent next year, and a lot of guys in this league become unrestricted free agents at sometime of their career. I don’t want this to be a situation where anyone thinks we don’t value Ben, because we do, and if he’s on our team, we hope he has a great year and helps us win games.

Reporter:

Are you talking about lesser year deals, maybe not 6 but 3?

John Paxson:

I’m not going to go into any details of the conversations. Neither side has made much progress from their end. Ben’s in a tough position because the player is the guy, he would like to get something done. He’s got two sides negotiating. We’ll see where it goes. One way or another, it’s pretty obvious that Ben’s going to be part of our team this year. Like I’ve said the last few days we’ve got to find a way to make that work, both sides. Myself, Vinny, and the players, and Ben himself. We have to find a way to make it work.