Ben Gordon appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000 today, to talk about him becoming a Detroit Piston. Here is a recap of what he had to say.

• He is happy about the situation he’s going into.  Joe Dumars is really focused on winning and his priority is winning a championship.  That’s also Ben’s main goal as a player.
• He first knew he was going to sign with the Pistons right after he met with Dumars.  Dumars exuded winning, and everything he talked about was building a team to win a championship.  Dumars convinced Ben pretty easily to sign, and it was a no brainer to sign with the Pistons.
• The Bulls didn’t pursue him at all, they didn’t even make an offer.  It was pretty much a one team race.
• On whether the Bulls were lying when they said it was a top priority to re-sign him, Ben said that it is what it is.  There was no offer made.  You have to put it together.
• He felt that he always got a lot of love and respect from the fans that really followed the games.  When walking down the street, people always showed him love.

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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.

Del Harris appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000. Here is a recap of what he had to say.

• He thinks Bruno falling on Eminem was staged.  If it wasn’t staged, Bruno better buy a bullet proof vest.
• He will probably stay in basketball some way or the other.  He might pull a Brett Favre, but it’s unlikely, because of his age.
• If there were stressful times between the coaching staff, as Jerry Reinsdorf alluded to, then he didn’t know about it.  Jerry Reinsdorf wasn’t there that much, and was gone for most of the season.  They had really good, healthy exchanges between the staff.
• If you look at the overall year, they did an excellent job as a staff.  They started off with a blank page.  Vinny had never coached a game, and the staff had never been together at all.  They didn’t know the personnel that well.  They didn’t have a real system to start out with to tweak.
• This was a good year to go out on.  They had a great time those last 2 months.  The first 5 months were frustrating, but it was a remarkable turnaround.
• He doesn’t care that Kevin Garnett was out in the playoffs.  Apparently, no one on national TV had heard of Luol Deng, who is a pretty good player.  The Bulls could have used Luol, because without him, they were forced to play 7 guys.  IF they had one more guy, Deng or Sefolosha, Harris thinks they win that series.
• Their bread and butter was going with four smaller guys and either Brad Miller or Joakim Noah, no offense to Tyrus Thomas, who was a bad matchup against Boston.  They had a system (not +/-) which showed what the best lineups were against Boston.  They consistently showed that the lineup with four smalls worked best.  Boston’s best lineups against us were with both their bigs in.  However, when the Bulls went small, Boston would take one of their big guys out.
• In the second quarter of the seventh game, if Salmons doesn’t pick up his third foul right before Vinny was about to go small, they don’t go down 14 at halftime, and win that seventh game.

Amare Stoudemire appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000 to discuss protecting your eyes and a potential trade.  Here is a recap of what was said in that interview.

• The eye feels great, and he is feeling phenomenal as a whole.
• He is going to be 100 percent for next season for sure.  He is going to wear gogglles, because he never knows when he will be poked in the eye.
• He will get a Bulls logo on the side of his goggles if he is a Chicago Bull.
• He loves Vinny Del Negro.
• It all depends on what the Suns want to do.  If they want to win a championship, he will probably be a Sun.  He is down for any team that wants to win a title.  It’s time for him to win a title.
• Derrick Rose went to Memphis, and he was going to go to Memphis if he wasn’t the 9th pick in the draft, so they have the Memphis connection.  He thinks that Rose is a phenomenal point guard and has a bright future ahead of him.  Rose just needs a few guys around that are going to raise his game and also to help him win a championship.
• The past season was difficult.  They had high expectations, knew they had the proper team to win a title and had a great opportunity to win a title, but it didn’t happen that way.
• His knee wasn’t that bad.  There have been players who didn’t come back from microfracture surgery, but that was because their knee was that bad.  He caught his early so it wouldn’t get that bad.  His knee is doing phenomenal.  He is planning to play in this league for another 10 to 12 years.
• He would rather get dealt before the season starts rather than midseason, so he can build camaraderie and trust with his teammates early.  But, right now, he is a Phoenix Sun, and wants to try to win a championship in Phoenix.
• He thinks it is 50/50 that he gets traded.  He’s not totally sure what’s going to happen.
• He would be ameniable to signing an extension.  If the Suns want him to be their guy, he would sign an extension.  Longevity and a championship are his priorities.

The interview can be listened to here.

Ben Gordon appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show to talk about the Bulls vs. Celtics series, the future of the Bulls, and his future. Here is a recap of what was said in the interview.

• The hamstring injury was pretty bad.  He had to take painkillers before every game.  But once it got warmed up, he could obviously play.
• The series was an epic battle that will go down in history.  Gordon thinks it was the best series ever.  In it, you saw two teams that really exhibited what pro sports is all about at the highest level.  Had to be amazing to watch, because it was amazing to be a part of.
• He spent most of Saturday and Sunday morning replaying what went wrong in Game 7.    Sunday was more for reflecting on the season as a whole and what they accomplished.  Was happy with the effort and heart the team played with.
• The playoff experience is very important for Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.  For them to go out there and experience the difference between the regular season and post season is important.  The veterans can only tell them so much about it, they have to go out there and experience how many notches the playoffs are above any other level of basketball.  That’s going to be monumental in their careers and the way they continue to develop as players.
• Gordon knows that Luol Deng can become a good player again.  Deng is one of the hardest workersi nt he offseason, and is committed to basketball and getting better.  Gordon is positive that Deng can come back and have a great year because he puts the work in.  He thinks that Deng had some troubles adjusting to the new coach and system.
• Gordon thinks that Vinny did a decent job.  Vinny still has a lot to learn and room for improvement.  For a first year coach, he did a good job.  He ended up getting the Bulls into the playoffs and competing against the defending champs, so that made it a pretty good year for Vinny.
• Vinny needs to improve his game time situations.  That is what really shows a coach’s experience and that is where they make their money at.  The great coaches always seem to make the right substitutions at the right time or draw up a great play.  Vinny needs to get a better feel for when to make certain decisions.
• His future with the Bulls is up in the air.  He has expressed since has gotten here that he would like to be here for 15 years and retire a Bull.  Unfortunately the last offseasons, they haven’t been able to come to a contract agreement.  This offseason, he is unrestricted, but his thoughts and feelings about being here are still the same.  From a business aspect it didn’t happen the past two summers, so now he has to look at his options and just go from there.
• The decision right now is the best decision for himself.  One of his main priorities is winning, he wants to win a championship.  Then after that, it is taking care of his best personal interests.
• With Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, it’s very encouraging.  He’d love to be back playing with these guys, and with Luol Deng coming back 100%.  With a full year under their belts and with Deng coming back, the team will be way better then this season.
• When asked about Barkley calling him crazy and how he responds, Gordon said he doesn’t respond to these comments.  Barkley is not part of the situation.  Everyone is entitled to their own decisions.  Ben doesn’t regret not signing the contract.  Things work themselves out.  A lot of peopel expected him to come out and sulk and cry, not be professional, but that didn’t happen.
• Kevin Garnett was doing a lot of heckling form the sidelines.  Gordon thought a lot of it was unnecessary.  But that is Garnett trying to be the emotional leader and very demonstrative.  That’s just KG being KG.  Garnett did not give Gordon a handshake after the game.
• Ray Allen told Gordon what a great series it was.  Allen was happy how they were both able to perform and represent for UConn.  He told Ben to rally the young guys together and that they could be a good team.
• Gordon just wants Bulls fans to know that he would always want to be here, hopefully retire here after a good 15 year career and a couple of championships.  He also wants them to know that the business side may change some of that, but he is hoping otherwise.

You can listen to the interview online, here.

John Paxson appeared on Waddle and Silvy on ESPN 1000 to discuss the start of the season for the Bulls.

Here is a recap of what Paxson had to say in the interview:

• The Bulls future has become much clearer. The Bulls just have to focus on what players fit around Derrick Rose.
• The Bulls are very lucky to have landed Rose.
• Paxson is surprised that Rose is scoring as good as he has.
• The Bulls are an inconsistent team. Paxson thinks that Ben Gordon has played pretty consistently so far this season. Paxson thinks Gordon has learned to play with Rose.
• Luol Deng is the one who has struggled. Felt that Deng broke out of it a bit against the Bucks. The Bulls need Deng to get back to playing with consistency.
• If the Bulls get what they expect from Derrick, Luol, and Ben then they feel that they are in pretty good shape in terms of competing.
• Thinks Vinny Del Negro has done a good job as coach. Vinny is working really hard and is hard on himself.
• A major deficiency of the Bulls is their defense. Offensively, he wants to see the team moving the ball. He thinks they take too many quick shots, and when they take quick shots the other teams run on the Bulls.
• Larry Hughes has been great so far and very professional. Hughes understands what the Bulls are about and that is Derrick and building the team around Derrick.
• The Bulls made the decision that they didn’t want to go the trade route because of the uncertainty of the Ben Gordon situation. Paxson says, in the last couple years, the really good players that have been traded have been traded for strictly financial reasons.
• Decisions going forward are now who fits personnel wise with Derrick. Wants more shooting and guys willing to run at the pace Derrick likes to play.
• In order to become players in the 2010 free agency, the Bulls have to get rid of some contracts. People will know if they are going that route depending on the Bulls’ personnel decisions. The chances of acquiring a great player is better if they have cap space. Paxson understands that there is no question about it, other guys in the league want to play with Derrick Rose, and that makes the Bulls situation pretty unique.
• It’s disappointing that Joakim Noah isn’t in the physical condition that he needs to be to play. Noah has to get his butt in shape.
• The coaches feel that Aaron Gray is in the right place at the right time defensively more so than the other bigs.

You can listen to the entire interview live at ESPN1000.com