Ex-NBA player Ben Gordon grins after making bail for allegedly hitting son — only to be arrested again
Ben Gordon is in foul trouble with the law – again.
The former NBA player made bail early Wednesday after being arrested for allegedly punching his son in the face — and then smiling about it — only to get busted again hours later in a separate case.
The ex-Chicago Bulls guard was brought to the NYPD’s 32nd Precinct in Manhattan on an outstanding warrant for a 2020 cellphone robbery after being released around 3 a.m. on a $50,000 insurance bond paid for by celebrity bail bondsman Ira Judelson, according to court documents and sources.
Gordon, 39, was booked for the March 13, 2020 incident, in which a 19-year-old woman claimed he grabbed her phone and she dropped it as she tried to make a call, sources said. She claimed Gordon had elbowed her during the scuffle, sources added.
It wasn’t clear what the relationship between Gordon and the woman was.
The retired NBA player flashed a wide grin for news photographers as he was escorted by a cop into Manhattan Central Booking with his hands cuffed behind his back on Wednesday afternoon.
By early Wednesday night, Gordon was free again after he was released on his recognizance by a Manhattan judge at his arraignment on a misdemeanor assault charge in the March 2020 case.
Gordon declined to comment after his release, but his attorney, Joshua Kirshner said, “he’s fine, he’s happy to be heading home to friends.”
He had just been arraigned Tuesday night in Queens Criminal Court, accused of hitting the 10-year-old boy as they waited to board a flight to Chicago at LaGuardia Airport on Monday, according to the criminal complaint against him.
The child had an existing order of protection against his father out of the state of Illinois from May 2018, court records show.
An American Airlines employee said she saw the ex-basketball player abuse the child and yell at him after the kid dropped a book on the floor, the complaint stated.
Gordon allegedly tussled with responding Port Authority cops — and tried to avoid getting handcuffed and put in a patrol car while declaring, “I am not going with you guys,” the complaint said.
The Mount Vernon native was slapped with charges including assault, endangering the welfare of a child and resisting arrest. Judge Edwin Novillo ordered bail set at $20,000 cash, $50,000 insurance bond or $50,000 partially secured bond at 10% at his arraignment.
It’s not the shooting guard’s first run-in with the law. He’s been arrested several times in the past, including incidents where he flashed a knife at his former apartment building manager and forged a license plate.
The former basketballer, who won an NCAA title with the University of Connecticut, is expected after his release to stay with his mother in Mount Vernon just outside New York City, where he grew up and played high school ball.