Ben Gordon Fined For “Missing” Flight Deadline

January 22nd, 2009 by Andrew Wamboldt

According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, Ben Gordon was fined earlier today for missing a team flight deadline.

The Bulls fined guard Ben Gordon on Thursday for missing the team deadline for a flight, and the typically stoic guard expressed his displeasure during an animated conversation with coach Vinny Del Negro.

The incident took place after Del Negro addressed reporters and had answered a direct question about whether players respect the rookie coach by saying this: “They should. They better. But you ask the players that.”

Del Negro declined a request through a team spokesman to address the issue further. Reached outside the Berto Center, Gordon said the incident was no longer an issue and he had no problems with Del Negro.

Gordon did not curse his coach directly but used profanity to emphasize his frustration, believing he had been falsely accused of the transgression.

This is pretty silly, either Gordon missed the flight or he didn’t. This is just a case of one man’s word versus another. Given Gordon’s superb track record and Del Negro’s dubious character and small tactics, one’s initial reaction would be that Del Negro was the one in the wrong here, although it is still unclear whether or not Gordon actually did miss a flight deadline.

Vinny Del Negro will never work as the Bulls coach if the players don’t trust him, and players cannot possibly trust him if they think that he is falsely accusing them of fineable actions to show his role as the dominant figure on the team. This is clearly the case with Ben Gordon, the Bulls’ best player, who doesn’t seem to trust the coach or think much of his coaching ability.

Earlier in the month, in a mouthpiecesports.com piece, Ben Gordon failed to say anything positive about his coach, calling him a players coach while making quotation marks with his fingers, and saying the major difference between Skiles and Vinny is experience.

If the players don’t trust or respect Vinny Del Negro, then he needs to go, it’s as simple as that. It is unjust to the fans of Chicago to force them to watch more of Vinny’s horrid coaching, especially given how much talent is being misused on this roster. It is time for John Paxson to do what is right, and that is to fire Vinny Del Negro immediately.