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The War of 2012: Eric Gordon Chooses the Phoenix Suns over the New Orleans Pelicans

By Brendon Kleen

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Until last year the summer of 2012 had defined Eric Gordon‘s tenure as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans. Brendon looks back on that from a new point of view.

Try to take yourself back to July of 2012. What was on your mind? The EU had worked out an embargo against Iran just months before. The London Olympics were just days away from making Gabby Douglas a star. Being as it was that I had just celebrated my 15th birthday at a local Phoenix high school basketball game, my scope of interests was not quite broad enough to catch these world events.

Sports were a massive part of my life, and as I began to discover a love for those who reported on my favorite Arizona sports teams, the Suns had a big summer looming. They had just finished a lockout shortened season in which their wing rotation included Shannon Brown, Michael Redd and Josh Childress. Steve Nash was a Laker. The team needed hope, and a star to go with it.

They literally rolled out an orange carpet. Fans who had never even considered the man a Sun before that summer arrived at US Airways Center to cheer their way toward seeing Gordon don the orange and purple. A video montage called him a “cornerstone”.

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As I’m sure most Pelicans fans remember, this was following a season in which Gordon played in nine games and attempted only 100 shots. Why the Suns or their fans might want such a player obviously came from his production as a Los Angeles Clipper during his first three seasons in the league. Considering his spot on the Hornets roster only came as a result of the Chris Paul trade, it made sense that Gordon would want off of a team that had just finished 21-45.

When the day came, Suns fans were preposterously happy. Just look through those 513 comments at the bottom of the page. A real shooting guard? Something they hadn’t really had since Joe Johnson, barring a couple of fun Jason Richard seasons. A potentially max-level player interested in playing in Phoenix? None since peak Amar’e Stoudemire and Nash were together.

To a fifteen year old sports fan, those kinds of moments are the ones for which you remember exactly what you were doing and where you were. The idea of a great scorer who wanted to play for my city coming and doing exactly that tickled my childhood giddiness in a way that little else ever has.

Everyone has that moment somewhere along their sports fandom timeline, and to get caught up in the exhilaration of a real free agency chase was surely unlike anything that Mr. Nobley’s homeroom Algebra 2 class had brought me in my freshman year of high school. It still seems we haven’t had many trails of controversy blazed by a second-tier free agent since Gordon.

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    • The result of this frenzy is old news. Dell Demps and the Hornets matched the offer, claimed their do- over prize for the next four years, and cemented Gordon as part of Anthony Davis‘s first core of teammates.

    Considering our place now in the last year of Gordon’s contract, having largely forgotten the signing of that offer sheet and having firmly surpassed Phoenix in the West’s hierarchy, Pelicans fans are likely at peace.

    As someone who’s now fully switched over to a fan of the most fun organization in basketball, I am in the same place. I appreciate the love Gordon showed toward the city I live in and love too. But I’m also thankful for the professionalism and dedication Eric has displayed as a member of the franchise that earned the right to pay for his services.

    Maybe we’ll never see what kind of team the Pelicans could have been. Maybe injuries and other misfortunes have doomed this era of Pelicans basketball to a low ceiling. Maybe my bias as a fan of both franchises that vied for Eric Gordon’s talents in the summer of 2012 have turned me into a homer for a player who may now only be a $15 million spot up shooter.

    But those moments of joy in the summer of 2012, watching an exciting young player toggle between two of my favorite young teams in the league, were some of the most informative and happy in my career as a sports fan.

    And those are the kinds of moments you probably wouldn’t trade, even for $15 million.

    Next: Years Later Gordon Checks in as the Fifth Best Player on Roster

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