Ben Gordon

Benjamin Ashenafi Gordon (born April 4, 1983) is a British-American former professional basketball player.

Between Michael Jordan's departure in 1998 and Gordon's arrival in 2004, the Bulls did not win more than 30 games in a single season.

In his rookie year, Gordon helped lead a turnaround from a 3–14 start to finish 47–35 and secure the fourth seed in the playoffs.

He averaged 15.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while playing 24.2 minutes per game.

Gordon also finished with 21 double-digit fourth-quarter-point performances, second to only LeBron James's 22 in the NBA.

In their first playoff appearance in the post-Jordan era, the Bulls (without Luol Deng) lost to the Washington Wizards in six games.

After the season, Gordon became the first rookie in league history to be awarded the NBA Sixth Man Award.

Gordon was also the NBA's Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month 3 times (January through to March), and was also voted onto the NBA All-Rookie First Team.

Gordon played high school basketball for the Mount Vernon Knights, and helped lead the team to the 2000 New York State Public and Federation Championships.

Gordon was an All-State player at Mount Vernon and a top-40 national recruit.

He was heavily recruited by Seton Hall, but decided to attend UConn.

As a freshman at UConn, Gordon ranked second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg), despite coming off the bench for most of the season.

He hit the game-winning three-point shot against Villanova in the Big East tournament.

Gordon played for 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and he played college basketball for the University of Connecticut, where he won a national championship in 2004.

He is the only player to have ever won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award as a rookie.

Gordon is third in career three-point field goals for the Chicago Bulls, behind Kirk Hinrich and Zach LaVine.

He shares the NBA record for most three point field goals in a game without a miss (9) with Latrell Sprewell and Jalen Brunson.

Gordon was born in London, England, to a Jamaican father and an African-American mother.

He moved to the United States as an infant, and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York.

Following his junior year, Gordon declared himself eligible for the 2004 NBA draft and was selected third overall by the Chicago Bulls, one pick after the Charlotte Bobcats drafted his UConn teammate, Emeka Okafor.

Before the 2004 NBA draft, Gordon thought that he would be drafted anywhere from 7th to 12th, but as the draft got closer he claimed to have an inkling that the Bulls might draft him third as they did with Michael Jordan 20 years earlier in the 1984 NBA draft.

Gordon also had problems with turnovers (4.46 per 48 minutes; sixth in the league in 2004–05), however, and an overall lack of stamina in his rookie season.

He remarked, "More than anything, I just want to come back [in the fall] in better shape. ... A lot of this game is about conditioning and how long you can give your best performance."

Gordon also revealed that he was in the process of designing an energy drink called BG7, an allusion to his initials and jersey number.

Gordon unveiled the drink at One Sixty Blue, a restaurant co-owned by Michael Jordan.

The drink was made with white tea, which has a very high amount of antioxidants, and the most polyphenols of any tea.

In his sophomore campaign, Gordon alternated between the starting lineup and bench for the Bulls, starting 47 games (mostly in the later half of the season) while coming off of the bench for 35.

The minutes Gordon played per game rose, as did his scoring and assist averages.

Gordon was selected to play for the Sophomores in the Rookie Challenge held during the NBA All-Star Weekend, in which he scored 17 points.

On April 14, 2006, in a Bulls win over the Washington Wizards, Gordon tied Latrell Sprewell's NBA record for the most three-pointers made in a game without a miss 9.

The Bulls returned to the playoffs but were again eliminated in the first round in six games; this time they lost to the Miami Heat, who went on to win the NBA championship.

"I'm a guy who looks at the significance of numbers a lot. Before the draft, I had no idea I'd get drafted third. I thought I was going to go anywhere from 7th to 12th. As we started getting closer and I started to get an inkling that the Bulls could be a team that I could end up playing for, I started to look at the numbers. Michael Jordan was drafted by the Bulls and he was the third pick just like you."

Gordon wore the number 4 on his jersey in high school and college, but had to wear the number 7 with the Bulls due to the number 4 being retired.

Gordon said, "I wore No. 4 my whole career but, of course, Jerry Sloan already had that number beforehand so there wasn't much I could do about it. So all I did was just [put together] being the third pick with my old No. 4. That's why I wear No. 7." The Bulls also acquired Luol Deng in the same draft.

As a sophomore Gordon averaged a team-leading 19.5 points (which ranked 50th in the nation) and also led the Huskies with 156 total assists, which earned Gordon Second Team All-Big East honors.

In Gordon's junior and final year at UConn, he averaged a team-leading 20.5 points (again ranked 50th in the nation), 4.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists.

He also connected on 104 three-pointers, the second-highest single-season total in UConn's history.

Gordon set a Big East Tournament record with 81 total points, earning the tournaments' Most Outstanding Performer honors.

Gordon also earned the Most Outstanding Player award of the Phoenix Regional honors in the NCAA tournament.

He also led the tournament field with 127 total points, as he helped lead the Huskies to the NCAA championship.