EXCLUSIVE: Eric Gordon talks summer departure from Clippers
The 16-year NBA veteran was waived by the Clippers last June.
LOS ANGELES — It’s never easy to be traded or waived in the NBA. It brings about a time of uncertainty for most players and could have them questioning their ability to still play at the highest level in the world.
But having the same team do it to you twice is a unique territory for a player to find themselves in, especially when factoring in that you would have liked to stay — both times.
“We were trying to be on the path to doing something special and then it just didn’t work out,” Phoenix Suns guard Eric Gordon said during an exclusive interview with Russo Writes following Monday’s game between the Suns and LA Clippers. “And now, I’m in a different situation.”
Gordon was drafted No. 7 overall by the Clippers back in 2008, spending his first three seasons with the franchise where he averaged 18.1 points, 3.3 assists, and 2.7 rebounds across 196 games.
Gordon spent the better part of those seasons alongside both DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, two staples of the team’s ‘Lob City’ era. Unfortunately for Gordon, he wouldn’t get to enjoy that upswing in winning with his running mates as he was traded to New Orleans in December 2011 in a larger package for guard Chris Paul, something Gordon was not happy about at the time.
“They literally told me as an organization that they wanted to keep me, and [the trade still] went down?” Gordon told Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears in an interview back in January 2012.
“All you do is take the man’s word and take that he said that no one is going to go anywhere,” Gordon said at that time. “To completely lie like that is something unprofessional.”
The Clippers’ front office has since changed personnel.
Gone is general manager Neil Olshey, who left the organization in June 2012 to take over in Portland before eventually being fired in December 2021.
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Gordon, who at the time of the 2011 trade was 22 years old, was coming off a season with the Clippers in which he averaged career highs in points (22.3), assists (4.4), rebounds (2.9), and steals (1.3) while playing in 56 games for a Clippers team that went 32-50.
Now 35, Gordon has been relegated to more of a shooting role off the bench due to his capacity to space the floor for superstar-level talent around him, something that made him an attractive fit for the Suns’ star trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal after Gordon reached an agreement with Phoenix on a minimum deal following his release by the Clippers in June.
“We got a lot of new guys on this team, that’s what people forget,” Gordon said after Monday’s loss to the Clippers. “We’re gonna get to it. We gotta get a lot of things right chemistry-wise, offensively, defensively, but as long as the season gets better, we gotta find ways to just get better game by game.”
Gordon holds a special place for Clippers fans who still support him after multiple stints with the organization.
After all, Gordon was here before the team became the winning organization it eventually turned into following the Paul trade. The Clippers, to that point, are on pace for their 13th consecutive winning season which is not only the longest active streak in the league but would also be the seventh-longest streak in NBA history.
“It’s where I started my career. Had a lot of good years here and came back,” Gordon recounted to Russo Writes. “But the fans have always been good here. They’ve been good here to me.”
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The reasons for Gordon not being on the Clippers are fairly obvious, at least to all parties concerned.
“The ability to bring back Russ [Westbrook], obviously, Eric’s, from a financial standpoint, there was — I mean, a great thing working for Steve [Ballmer], he never gives us financial limitations,” said Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank during a September meeting with reporters prior to the opening of training camp.
Frank continued: “But some things, just from a basketball sense, we felt with the guys we have that they were ready to fill some of the things we asked Eric to do. It’s a huge tax savings. And Russ was really — just knowing that we had Russ, it kind of would change Eric’s role and just felt it was, it was best for the team.”
The financial aspect is the elephant in the room, but it’s also something that Gordon feels readily comfortable addressing.
“It was just straight business,” said Gordon.
Gordon had a $20.9 million non-guaranteed option for the 2023-24 season which the Clippers opted to not exercise, thus resulting in Gordon hitting free agency.
The money is something Gordon obviously isn’t pleased about losing out on, but did understand that the timing of the decision — which had to come before free agency was set to begin on June 30 — made his chances of staying with the Clippers a tough bet.
“You got to make that decision like that before free agency,” Gordon explained to Russo Writes. “So, I knew it was gonna be definitely a tough decision during that time.”
Due to some of the injuries that the Phoenix Suns have suffered early on in the season, Gordon is seeing his most minutes since 2018-19.
The veteran guard is averaging 13.5 points on 46.3 percent shooting, including 40.5 percent on 6.6 3-point attempts per game. Gordon is still one of the league’s premier marksmen, especially with his unique ability to space the floor from far beyond the 3-point line.
Since Gordon’s arrival into the NBA, only three players — Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, and Trae Young — have made more shots from 28-plus feet than Gordon’s 233.
Gordon’s archetype makes him invaluable to teams that are attempting to give their best players more room to roam, but the Clippers had financial implications at play when deciding to let Gordon go for a second time in their organizational existence.
It doesn’t negate the sting that Gordon felt, even if he did understand it was strictly business. And even if it was more palatable than the first go-round.
“I knew that they wanted me here,” Gordon assured. “But financially it just didn’t work out and things happen like that. It just works like that.”