Remebering Ben Gordon......

[mlewinth]

Other then MAYBE Elton Brand, Ben Gordon was the best Bull since MJ. Due to the dim wittiness of our front office, they never quite saw how unique and awesome his skills were. Now that he has passed, what is your favorite Ben Gordon moment? Mine was a three over Ariza to win a big game in OT, in 05 against the Knicks. Tyson Chandler picked up Ben and threw him over his shoulders. I was at that game with Diddy. Our reaction to the shot was borderline homosexual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJVghh9rm5k


Also check out this crazy video i found of Ben partying it up on his 26th Bday. Good to see Ben could have a little fun under such harsh working conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WigNnAJeunA&NR=1

 

[Newskoolbulls]

The game in 07-08 againt Michael Redd and Bucks. Overtime thriller.

 

[mlewinth]

Newskoolbulls wrote:

The game in 07-08 againt Michael Redd and Bucks. Overtime thriller.

Great game... Gordon dropped like 50 that night. He is such a legend.

 

[Newskoolbulls]

mlewinth wrote:

Newskoolbulls wrote:

The game in 07-08 againt Michael Redd and Bucks. Overtime thriller.

Great game... Gordon dropped like 50 that night. He is such a legend.

He was robbed of ROY.

 

[??? ??????]

Ben Gordon absolutely obliterating the Heat in the 2007 playoffs. He never got the credit for it, Luol Deng got all the credit, but Gordon's 25.5 / 5.5 was the most responsible for winning that series. Deng might have averaged 0.5 points more, but Gordon led the team in scoring in the last 3 games of the series, and was the #1 focus of the Heat defense. (Deng did his work wide open and in single coverage, Gordon did his being drenched by the Heat defense).

Skiles was essentially running Gordon at the point guard spot. Someone else might have brought the ball up the court, but once in the half court, Gordon would get it at the top of the key. Since our big men were inept, and ruining the pick and roll, Skiles had Gordon and Nocioni do the pick and roll, and we just destroyed the Heat with the Gordon/Nocioni pick and roll.

Of course we abandoned that strategy in the second round, and never gave Gordon the ball at the top of the key in the Pistons series, and rather had Gordon just stand in the corner, which was "surprisingly" easy to defend, and deny him the ball. If we had just kept the strategy from the Miami series, we would have easily beaten the Pistons in the second round. Instead, Skiles hindered Gordon's effectiveness. He really just had Gordon standing in the corner. Gordon is most effective in catch and shoots and handling the ball at the top of the key. Skiles didn't give the ball to Gordon at the top of the key, or have Gordon running around screens for catch and shoot opportunities.

He literally had Gordon just stand in the corner the entire series. I think Skiles drank a little too much Luol Deng kool aid after the first round. That's nothing against Deng, he was great in the Pistons series. But I think Skiles strategy was for Deng to draw a double team, and kick it to Gordon in the corner. The double team never came, Hamitlon or Prince just outstretched their arms, denying Gordon the ball in the corner, and Skiles took away our biggest weapon for nearly the entire series.

 

[RC_Skinny22]

My favourite Ben Gordon moment is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai_AIjx-n3c

That fake was nice, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEFr9f4osZE

A little help for you to remember some scenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXlWA3lPt5Y&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGlm-KgL7kU&hd=1

 

[vhans5219]

Skool you're wrong it was in the 06-07 season

 

[vhans5219]

oh and he had 48 that night not 50

 

[Newskoolbulls]

vhans5219 wrote:

Skool you're wrong it was in the 06-07 season

me wrong? no never.

 

[Newskoolbulls]

vhans5219 wrote:

oh and he had 48 that night not 50

Son of a itch he did it again, dont you ever ever correct me again.

:laugh:

 

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

I've got to say...that title scared me at first when I saw it. Living in China, I'm usually slow to hear about news (except when Oscar Meyer died and I broke that on here) and was thinking "...What!? Did Ben Gordon...die?" Glad that isn't the case...when i noticed it was just a retrospective of his career as a Bull i breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, I'm so relieved that he's alive thats my favorite thing about him.

 

[Diddy1122]

mlewinth wrote:

Other then MAYBE Elton Brand, Ben Gordon was the best Bull since MJ. Due to the dim wittiness of our front office, they never quite saw how unique and awesome his skills were. Now that he has passed, what is your favorite Ben Gordon moment? Mine was a three over Ariza to win a big game in OT, in 05 against the Knicks. Tyson Chandler picked up Ben and threw him over his shoulders. I was at that game with Diddy. Our reaction to the shot was borderline homosexual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJVghh9rm5k


Also check out this crazy video i found of Ben partying it up on his 26th Bday. Good to see Ben could have a little fun under such harsh working conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WigNnAJeunA&NR=1

That OT game against the Knicks was probably the greatest moment I have ever had at a Bulls game. It was actually in '06 in January. That was a crazy OT. It started with Duhon & Maurice Taylor getting ejected after getting into it, then Antonio Davis, who was a Knick at the time, went into the stands because his crazy ass wife was screaming at some fans. From where we were sitting, which was nosebleeds to be sure, I couldn't tell who it was that went into the stands but it stopped the game for like 10mins, then AD got ejected. Crawford nailed a 3 with like 5 secs left, at which point I probably let out the loudest F-bomb in the UC. But then our hero, our savior came to the rescue, and as Mark said we acted like a couple of Marys at a Liza Minelli concert.

Here's AD going into the stands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_BLLSvCOKM

 

[vhans5219]

Newskoolbulls wrote:

vhans5219 wrote:

oh and he had 48 that night not 50

Son of a itch he did it again, dont you ever ever correct me again.

:laugh:

:blush: :blush:

 

[Hendu0520]

The shot in overtime against the Knicks is my favorite single play of Ben's as a Bull. Didn't he hit a game icer or tying shot in New York a game earlier? If I remember he dominated the Knicks that year and we started calling him Madison Square Gordon here in NY.

The Miami series and this year's series against the Celtics are tied in my mind for my favorite series of games. I would say the Celtic's series if we won, but the Heat series we won and they were the defending NBA Chamions so I can't make up my mind here.

 

[cool007]

I am surely going to miss him.

 

[houheffna]

Favorite Ben memory, the Milwaukee game against Michael Redd and the Bucks, classic duel...

Ben Gordon absolutely obliterating the Heat in the 2007 playoffs. He never got the credit for it, Luol Deng got all the credit, but Gordon's 25.5 / 5.5 was the most responsible for winning that series. Deng might have averaged 0.5 points more, but Gordon led the team in scoring in the last 3 games of the series, and was the #1 focus of the Heat defense. (Deng did his work wide open and in single coverage, Gordon did his being drenched by the Heat defense).

Skiles was essentially running Gordon at the point guard spot. Someone else might have brought the ball up the court, but once in the half court, Gordon would get it at the top of the key. Since our big men were inept, and ruining the pick and roll, Skiles had Gordon and Nocioni do the pick and roll, and we just destroyed the Heat with the Gordon/Nocioni pick and roll.

Of course we abandoned that strategy in the second round, and never gave Gordon the ball at the top of the key in the Pistons series, and rather had Gordon just stand in the corner, which was "surprisingly" easy to defend, and deny him the ball. If we had just kept the strategy from the Miami series, we would have easily beaten the Pistons in the second round. Instead, Skiles hindered Gordon's effectiveness. He really just had Gordon standing in the corner. Gordon is most effective in catch and shoots and handling the ball at the top of the key. Skiles didn't give the ball to Gordon at the top of the key, or have Gordon running around screens for catch and shoot opportunities.

He literally had Gordon just stand in the corner the entire series. I think Skiles drank a little too much Luol Deng kool aid after the first round. That's nothing against Deng, he was great in the Pistons series. But I think Skiles strategy was for Deng to draw a double team, and kick it to Gordon in the corner. The double team never came, Hamitlon or Prince just outstretched their arms, denying Gordon the ball in the corner, and Skiles took away our biggest weapon for nearly the entire series.

Ben played well, he was one of the best players on that team. I just couldn't let this go by though. The Bulls beat the Heat because the Heat were old and Wade was half as good as he could be. That would have been a totally different series with Wade healthy. Anyone that believes different is fooling themselves. As far as the Pistons series, Luol was hands down the best player on the Bulls, Gordon couldn't guard ANYBODY in that series. Whoever he guarded got the ball, period. Billups was too strong for him and Hamilton was too fast and could shoot over him. That is one of the key reasons the Bulls didn't win that series. The main reason being that Detroit was much, much better as a team. Point blank. Just had to say that....

 

[??? ??????]

I think we can all agree that Gordon guarded Richard Hamilton for the majority of the series. In that series, Richard Hamilton scored 20, 24, 16, 11, 16, 23 for an average of 18.3 points on 52.4 TS%.

During the regular season that year, Richard Hamilton averaged 19.8 points on 55.1 TS%.

To extend this further, Chauncey Billups, who was guarded by Hinrich for pretty much the entire series, averaged 19.3 points on 58.1 TS%.

In the regular season, Billups averaged 17.0 points a game, but he did it on a higher 59.1 TS%.

You are out of your mind if you think Gordon's defense was the reason we lost that series. Gordon's man averaged less points and on quite a bit lower efficiency in that series than he did in the regular season. Most people would consider that a defensive success.

The reason we lost that series was because we only scored 69, 87, 74, and 85 in our losses. We didn't score the ball, and that's why we lost.

The Pistons only averaged 93 points a game in that series. When you hold a team to that, you are going to win the series more times than not.

The Bulls simply didn't score the basketball. The Bulls didn't score the basketball, because Scott Skiles completely misused Ben Gordon in that series.

Luol Deng was great in the Pistons series. No one is trying to take that away from him. I think Gordon was clearly better in the Miami series, but Deng was better in the Pistons series, and also the playoffs as a whole. But I think Gordon could have shined in the Pistons series if he was used properly.

 

[clonetrooper264]

My favorite memory...his Bulls career

 

[houheffna]

I said the main reason the Bulls lost to Detroit was because Detroit was a better team. Detroit had 4 or 5 players better than Luol or Ben at that time. At no time did the Bulls have the best player on the floor. At times Luol could be very competitive, he was one of the few Bulls who came out in game 1 playing well against Detroit and didn't seem intimidated. But the reason the Bulls lost was because they were inferior to the Pistons, and having Gordon play Hedo would not have changed that at all. Pretending that Gordon handling the ball was some planned move pre playoffs is not accurate. Gordon handled the ball because Hinrich was in foul trouble. When Hinrich was out there, Hinrich handled the ball against Miami and everybody else. Saying that the Bulls would have won EASILY over a legit contender with BG handling the ball is absolute nonsense.

 

[??? ??????]

I don't think you quite understand how having Gordon just stand in the corner affects the entire offense. If you have Gordon stand in the corner, you can just have a defender essentially pin him in the corner and deny him the ball, as he's a short player. The defender is going to stay locked on Gordon, so his defender isn't going to drop off on any of the other Bulls, leaving Gordon open. So you limit Gordon from getting the ball on the vast majority of plays, despite him being the Bulls best scorer that year.

When you take Gordon out of the big equation like that, you end up with players who don't warrant double teams. While if Gordon is running off screens, he is going to tire his man out, get some open shots, and eventually force a double team when it becomes clear his man can't keep up and guard him all by himself. (See Celtics series). If you give Gordon the ball at the top of the key, he is going to take his man off the dribble and draw help defense. Eventually, the head coach on the other team gets so sick of Gordon, that he sends a hard double team outside of the three point line at Gordon. (See Miami series). Both of these things have a trickle down effect throughout the rest of the offense, making it easier for the other players to score (also making it easier for Gordon to score, because Skiles put him in a really bad position that series to score).

The Bulls should have easily won that series. In two of their games, they held the Pistons to 95 points. In one of the games, they held the Pistons to 81 points, and still lost.

When you're holding a team to 81 points and losing, your offense has a major problem (and the major problem was Skiles strategical error which I pointed out).