After kicking away a six-year deal worth $58 million, Ben Gordon held out for -- drum roll, please! -- a one-year qualifying offer of $6.4 million. For non-mathematologists, that's a net loss of almost $52 million in guaranteed money. But Ben's going all Alfred E. Neuman about the whole thing:

"I don't regret any decisions. I always try to make the right one. I have my own set of reasons why I make decisions that may be different than anyone else's. After looking at how everything went down, I definitely made the right decision."

Boy, I'd hate to see what happens when Ben makes the wrong decision. The supposed upshot of the one-year deal is that Ben will be an unrestricted free agent again next summer, when, apparently, he and his agent believe teams will suddenly be keen on handing over a max contract to an undersized shooting guard who can't handle the ball, create plays for his teammates, or defend anybody at his position. This will be right after gold nuggets start falling from the sky and just before Al-Qaeda starts handing out real kittens instead of kitten-shaped bombs.

Labels: Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls, contract negotiations, failure