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TWO YEARS AGO, life was different for BEN GORDON. He had it all: a city that loved him, a starting spot on a playoff team and a rep as one of the most clutch players in the league. But since coming to the Pistons, Gordon has dealt with constant questions. Coming off the worst season of his professional career, at a time when he should be in his prime, BG is ready to remind everyone of exactly who he is.
H
ERE HE IS RAISING from 25-feet away, his right arm on a string. Oh he's on fire! Here he is rounding off a screen, flashing his arms up above his neck, letting a flying Ray Allen float by before netting another shot. Here he is in the lane contorting his body, making it look easy. His expression rarely changes, a quiet confidence.
None of this ended in a win, 42 points lost into the New England night. But it was simply Ben
Gordon's best game during the best playoff series any of us have ever seen, coming immediately after the best season of Ben Gordon's career.
Can we go back to 2009? Specifically April. In Boston. The Play-
offs. It was an epic playoff series, perhaps the best ever. The Celtics won in seven games after seven overtimes. But not before they bled.
That was all Ben Gordon, a former NBA Sixth Man of the Year and owner of one of the most complete offensive repertoires in the game. There he went fading off a screen. Oh he's feelin' it now. There he went pulling up from the left wing. There he went scrambling to the baseline, twisting, squeezing off a run- ner. Oooohhh. 24.3 points a game later, and Gordon was heading toward a big summer payday, his journey going from the rolling hills of Mount Vernon to Storrs, Connecticut to Chicago, and eventually on to the next stop in Detroit.
Except something went wrong.