[vincesanity82]

When Gilbert Arenas recently criticized Luol Deng for turning down an extension from the Bulls, Deng's teammate Ben Gordon, who also turned down money, let it be known that he didn't appreciate Arenas speaking his mind. Instead of harboring a grudge, Gordon and Arenas recently talked things out the other night when the Bulls were in D.C. last week ... which Arenas later blogged about, natch:

He was telling me, "They didn't even negotiate with me. They were like, 'This is what it is, take it or leave it' and that was it."

I'm thinking, "Damn, that's kind of messed up," in my mind because when you have a player who has done a lot for your franchise ... two years ago y'all would have been signing this man to $75-million plus, and now two years later it's just like, "Take this or leave it!" ... And the same thing with Deng. I ended up finding out that with Deng; they didn't even offer him $60 million. No, they didn't even come close to that money.

Ben was like, "I heard if they would have offered him $58 million, he would have took that." So Luol didn't actually end up turning down what people thought he turned down.

I'm not sure Gordon was ever a $75 million player, but the point is still valid: a team unwilling to even budge is a team not even trying to negotiate. It's also pretty interesting to hear that Deng would have signed for $58 million -- I'm guessing a lot of fans will keep that figure in mind when Deng hits restricted free agency this summer.

Gilbert Arenas and Ben Gordon Clear the Air - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

[Lefty Noob]

The interesting thing here is the tight-fisted tactics of the Bulls being made public.

It's awful hard to keep young talent like Deng and Gordon around if you're not even willing to negotiate with them.