Eric Gordon

Lore & Background

Gordon was born in Indianapolis. At age four, he began playing sports at the Jewish Community Center across the street from his home, starting with soccer and then quickly moving on to basketball. At age seven he began playing competitive basketball at the Municipal Gardens. It was at the JCC that Gordon announced his departure from college to enter his name into the NBA draft.

He attended Fox Hill Elementary School, then Northview Middle School and North Central High School, where he played varsity basketball all four years. North Central's 2007 game against Loyola Academy of Wilmette, Illinois which featured Michael Jordan's sons, Jeffrey and Marcus, was aired on ESPN. He scored a record high of 43 points that night. He later went on to score 50 points twice during the season.

He led North Central to the Indiana 4A title game his senior year. They fell to E'Twaun Moore, Angel Garcia and East Chicago Central. Gordon averaged 29 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting 57.0% from the field, 77.9% from the free-throw line, and 46.2% from three-point range. He was named Indiana's 'Mr. Basketball' for 2007 as well as a McDonald's All-American.

Rivals.com ranked him the nation's #2 high school prospect in the class of 2007, behind Michael Beasley. During the summer, Gordon attended many AAU tournaments, Adidas Superstar camps, and Big Time in Las Vegas. He played on teams that included future NBA players Mike Conley Jr., Josh McRoberts, Daequan Cook, Derrick Rose and Greg Oden.

Reader's Guide

In 2005 as a sophomore in high school, Gordon made an early verbal commitment to Bruce Weber at the University of Illinois. On November 30, 2005, Gordon made a verbal commitment to play basketball for Weber at Illinois, despite overtures from Duke, Arizona and Notre Dame. On February 15, 2006, Sports Illustrated reported that Mike Davis, then the head coach at Indiana University, intended to resign after the 2005–06 season. Indiana subsequently hired Kelvin Sampson as the new men's basketball coach in March 2006.

Shortly after Sampson was named head coach, he hired Jeff Meyer, Eric Gordon Sr.'s college basketball coach and a longtime family friend, as an assistant. During the subsequent offseason, Gordon was recruited by Sampson's staff after Gordon told Sampson he was again interested in Indiana. It was rumored in July 2006 that Gordon was considering opting out of his verbal commitment to Illinois because of concerns about the quality of Weber's Illinois recruiting class, but Gordon said that although he was a childhood fan of the Hoosiers and was considering Indiana, he was still committed to Illinois.

On September 2, 2006, Gordon and Derrick Rose made an unofficial visit to Indiana to scrimmage with Hoosier players. Six weeks later, on October 13, 2006, Eric Sr. announced that his son had officially decided to switch his commitment. Gordon signed a National Letter of Intent with Indiana on November 8, 2006. Gordon's announcement gave Indiana a very strong 2007 recruiting class, ranked by some analysts as the third-best incoming class in the country.

Sampson and Weber both received criticism from fellow coaches for failing to communicate with one another about Gordon's recruitment. Gordon was warmly welcomed by Indiana fans, but received sharp criticism from Illinois fans. Eric Sr. stated in October 2006 that his son had received death threats as a result of his decision, but his son later stated that Illinois fans had only said they did not want the younger Gordon to be successful. On February 7, 2008, when Gordon and Indiana played Illinois in Champaign, he was the target of loud booing and taunting throughout the game.

At one point during the game, Eric Sr. stood up, turned around facing away from the court, and 'flipped off' the Illinois fans.