Ben Gordon appeared on ESPN 1000 to discuss his future with Waddle and Silvy. Here is a recap of what was said in that interview.

• He just started training again.
• He is not hearing any whispers of where he will end up.  He’s not sure if the Bulls are interested.
• He didn’t have an exit interview with anyone in the Bulls’ front office.  Things were different this year.
• Ultimately everything goes through Jerry Reinsdorf, regardless of who is in the front office.  Those guys just represent Jerry’s wishes.
• Doesn’t have a relationship with Jerry Reinsdorf.  Sometimes talks to him about contract things.
• Last summer was drawn out and came to a stalemate.  On Ben’s end, he tried to work out some other options involving other teams, but that did not go over.  At the end, he went to the Bulls and said he would take the offer, and they told him it was no longer on the table.  That was last summer’s negotiations in a nutshell.  They had an offer, then when he decided to take it, they told him it was no longer there.
• People do business different ways.  In this business you can’t be surprised with what happens.  Just took this as a learning experience, and did what he had to do this season, and now he’s going to let the chips fall where they may.
• Has had a great time in Chicago.  It’s a great city and he loves the fans.  He had a wonderful time playing here and had a lot of fun.
• As far as his decision, he wants to win.  The primary objective is to win an NBA championship.  Obviously the money has a lot to do with it, but also it will have to do with who has the best team in place, to at least give himself a chance to win a championship.  He is going to try to get market value.  He wants what he’s worth.  A lot of different things could sway his decision.  Winning is his highest priority , and also the financial side for his security and family.  He will weigh those two things and go from there, making the best decision for himself.
• He would hope to see some players and draft picks turned into a Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire.  Two seasons ago, he felt they were just one piece away.  He is counting on the organization to step up and maybe spend extra money so they can get some players to help.
• Either Bosh or Stoudemire would be a major upgrade in the front court, no disrspect to any of they guys they have now.
• He is not interested in playing in Europe.  He will play in the NBA next season.
• He will participate in a Bulls-Sox Academy event.  He is participating to support the kids.
• For the younger group, he tries to stress the fundamentals to them.  With the older group, he can get a little more in depth as far as different moves and adding stuff to their games.

You can listen to the interview online here.

Jerry Reinsdorf, in a radio interview with Chuck Swirsky, admitted his tomfoolery of not letting Ben Gordon sign the $54 million over 6 year deal last year, which Gordon wanted to sign.

“He was prepared to sign last year at the end, but after he turned down our offer, we thought about it and thought about it and decided it was in our best interest just to go one year with Ben,” Reinsdorf said. “We informed him of that, at which time his agent came back and said, ‘We’ll take your prior offer.’ We said it was too late. It’s off the table.

“We’ll have decisions to make at the draft. It depends on who we take, whether we trade our picks or we trade other players. Where we’re going with Ben can’t be decided until after July 1.”

This is one of the most inane actions that have been seen in recent NBA history. The Bulls won this round of negotiations, they had Gordon cracked, but they then proceeded in shooting themselves in the foot by not letting him sign the bargain bin deal.

Ben Gordon has been the best Bull since Michael Jordan, yet he was still willing to sign a contract of less value than that of Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Tyson Chandler, and Ben Wallace, all much lesser players. The actions of Jerry Reinsdorf in this situation are that of a dimwit.

Now the Bulls risk leading their leading scorer of the past four years. Oklahoma City, Detroit, and Memphis can all give him lucrative deals that could make him immediately make Gordon jump ship. Teams such as Miami and Cleveland could offer Gordon a 1 year deal, with the promise that they will re-sign him for big money next summer, as both teams will have capspace in the 2010 offseason.

The way that Reinsdorf talked about the draft, it seems like if the Bulls decide to re-sign Gordon, they will probably trade their picks.

It seems as though the basketball minds in the organization are on board with re-signing Gordon. But will it matter what they want in the end? In the end the baseball mind will be making the decisions, and it is clear that the baseball mind’s goal is to make as much money as possible. He has been pretty good at achieving that goal, as the Bulls’ have been the most profitable team over the past 10 years. At assembling a championship contender? Not so good. Maybe he should let the basketball minds do the thinking.