The fact that Gordon was named to the team doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll compete in either the FIBA World Championships in 2010 or the London Olympics in 2012, but it’s a good sign for his future with USA Basketball that he’s getting involved with the program in just his second NBA season.

Gordon, who will face-off against DeMar DeRozan on Friday night for the right to compete in Saturday’s Sprite Slam Dunk, is averaging 17 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists in his second NBA season for the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers are 21-30 and in third place in the NBA’s Pacific Division.

Gordon will also compete on the sophomore squad in Friday’s T-Mobile Rookie Challenge, which will be televised by TNT at 9 p.m. ET.

+ Both of IU’s 2011 commitments, Austin Etherington (pictured) and Matt Carlino, played well. Carlino’s shot reportedly looked much better than it did over the summer.

+ 2011 Muncie Central guard Jeremiah Davis attended the camp and the buzz continues to be that IU is in great shape with him. Davis is an AAU teammate of Etherington on Indiana Elite Team Indiana.

+ Current NBA players Eric Gordon, Steve Novak and Jared Jeffries all attended the camp. Both Novak and Jeffries spoke to the campers and Novak was spotted in IU shorts.

+ 2012 campers: Lawrence Central’s Jeremy Hollowell, Southport’s Kellon Thomas, Bloomington South’s T.J. Bell and Menomonee Falls (WI)’s J.P. Tokoto. Ron Patterson did not attend and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera is spending the weekend taking unofficial visits.

+ 2013 campers: Jeffersonville’s Darryl Baker and North Oldham (KY)’s Darryl Hicks. I had a chance to see both players over the summer and they both have a chance to be special. Jody Demling of The Louisville-Courier-Journal is reporting that Indianapolis Cathedral’s Collin Hartman and Brent and Bryson Scott of Ft. Wayne Northup attended.

+ 2011 guard/forward Aaron Thomas from Cincinnati Aiken (OH) is in Bloomington this weekend, but we’re not sure if he played in the camp. The IU staff followed Thomas closely in July at the Kentucky Hoopfest.

+ Indianapolis Pike’s Marquis Teague did not make it to the camp and all signs continue to point toward Louisville for Teague.

+ 2011 Gary Lew Wallace standout Branden Dawson opted to attend Marquette’s ’specialty’ camp according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Significant here is that Dawson is considered a Purdue lean and the Boilermakers also held a camp of their own on Saturday. The Journal Sentinel report also claims that Michael Cobbins, Vander Blue, Reggie Smith, Jeremy Lamb and DeJuan Marrero attended the Marquette camp.

For example, I knew Gordon was a quiet, reserved dude, but who knew he had never seen “Lord of the Rings?” Come on, man. It’s “Lord of the Rings!” You get the point.

Anyway, the L.A. Times has another in the current string of Gordon media profiles, and this one reveals, well, I don’t know, that his dad used to have an afro and short-shorts, and that’s the only thing that separates him and his son? That his teammates call him “the quietest Clipper?” I don’t know. The whole thing is just sort of weird and funny, and you should be sure to give it a read.

Eric Gordon: You, sir, are a mysterious fig.

Ball Don’t Lie: Every rookie has to make a major transition once they get into the league, but you’ve gone from living in Bloomington, Indiana to living in Los Angeles, California. What has the transition been like?

Eric Gordon: Well, it’s a major difference. Bloomington is a small city and it’s just a whole different atmosphere. You’re on your own now; you’re basically a grown up. When you’re in college, you still have a lot of different priorities as a young adult. (The professional lifestyle) is just a totally different change.

BDL: What about the differences between girls in both cities?

EG: (Laughs) Girls is girls. You’re going to see them everywhere. It really doesn’t matter.

BDL: They’re a little more “enhanced” in L.A. though, right?

EG: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of good looking girls in L.A. But, there’s girls everywhere though.

And …

BDL: OK, so what’s up with your “Hobbit,” nickname?

EG: You know what? I don’t need to know. All I know is the The Hobbit (Pauses) I forgot, I know it’s either a cartoon or I know it’s off of a movie. I think they played ‘em both, but I know [the name] does [or] it means special powers or something like that.

BDL: So you have special powers?

EG: (Smiles) Yeah, that’s what the guys say.

BDL: What do you think?

EG: I don’t have a clue. I really don’t have a clue about it. It sounds good though.

You might say that Friedell’s questions are subpar, but BDL does quite a few interviews like these. They’re normally offbeat questions designed to draw a few laughs and maybe even teach their audience a few things they didn’t know about the subject. Translation: a chance to have fun away from the beat reporters that like to ask the same mundane questions day after day.

In this instance, most of the interview comes off as downright awkward and in places, unreadable. Does Eric Gordon really not know what a hobbit is? I guess Gordon Sr. didn’t slide some J.R.R. Tolkien under the door when EJ was locked in the basement until 15. I almost feel sorry for Gordon until I remember that he’s one of the best 20-year old basketball players in the world and oh yeah, a millionaire.

“By the way, Eric got banned from the team half-court competition. I told you how after practice we have competitions; one of them is taking half-court shots and seeing who can make the most. He got so good that now he shoots from half-court like he’s shooting from the free-throw line. He’s so strong he can just step into it and make it almost every time. I watched him yesterday after practice. He was taking and making shots from about a foot inside the half-court line. His upper body and lower body are so strong that he doesn’t even have to really push the ball. He just shoots it and the ball flies out of his hands. He’s actually banned from a lot of things, like lifting weights. He’s too big. I think he’s an alien. Or I think when he was born his parents locked him up in the basement with weights and didn’t let him out until he was 15, then he started playing basketball.”

Remember that ridiculous range Gordon showed us last season? That was nothing. Before you know it, he’ll be tempted to try one of these long range bombs in a game situation. And he’ll probably make it. He is, after all, a freak. Or an alien. Either one works.

Gordon shot 12 of 19 from the field and 12 of 14 from the foul line and is averaging 17.5 points since being inserted into the starting lineup on November 24.

The 41 points set a Clippers franchise record for a rookie.

Related:

• Video highlights

+ Pete DiPrimio raises the question on the mind of a lot of IU fans: Could the Hoosiers go winless in the Big Ten? {Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel}

+ ESPN analyst Dick Vitale says that in two to three years, Indiana will be a perennial top-20 program under the leadership of Tom Crean. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Eric Gordon is financially backing a new AAU program, Gordon Elite, and several of the top players from Indiana are already on board. {Basketblog}

+ Crean, Tom Pritchard, Nick Williams and Daniel Moore address the media in advance of Saturday’s Big Ten opener at Carver Hawkeye Arena. {IUHoosiers.com}

Quotable:

“There wasn’t anybody involved in last year who didn’t make a mistake. Everyone would take something back. But they can’t. And, you know, we paid our debt. Look at the situation. No one got out without suffering.” – Armon Bassett on what transpired last year at Indiana.

+ Eric Gordon tells Chris Korman of The Herald-Times that he and Kelvin Sampson stay in touch and that the two will always be together. {The Hoosier Scoop}

+ Matt Dollinger of The Indiana Daily Student chronicles Gordon’s return to Conseco Fieldhouse and spots Indiana coach Tom Crean. {Basketblog}

+ Gordon says he’s not interested in talking about what happened in the past. {The Indianapolis Star}

+ Pacers coach Jim O’Brien says that Gordon has all of the right tools to become great at the NBA level. {The Indianapolis Star}

+ Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy talks about Gordon’s surprising defense for a rookie and Gordon talks about adjusting to the NBA. {Video, Pacers.com}

Quotable:

“I didn’t shoot the ball as well as I would expect to. It was different out there tonight. My heart was racing a little bit and I was trying to calm myself down. I had a lot of fans and friends in the stands tonight.” — Gordon on being back home in Indiana

So, it was sort of random happenstance that Jeff Rabjohns of the Indianapolis Star dropped this exclusive interview with Eric Gordon this evening. And, in agreement with that Sports Illustrated article from October, it looks like a lot of kids were doing drugs on the team.

“It was the guys that were doing drugs that were separate,” Gordon told The Indianapolis Star in an exclusive phone interview this week, speaking publicly for the first time about the issues that played a part in a once top 10 team failing to win a single postseason game.

[ ... ]

Gordon didn’t disclose which players used drugs, but he said D.J. White and two others still on the team were among those who did not. Attempts to reach White and several other former players were not successful.

Gordon said Sampson “tried to stop it,” but the coach “was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything.”

Gordon said he spent considerable time with a family friend in Bloomington because the atmosphere around some players was so bad he didn’t feel comfortable on campus.

“Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t even a real basketball team because of all the turmoil that went on,” said Gordon, now a starting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers. “I was just thinking about that the other day. It was so crazy that all that stuff threw off a good season and made it a waste, basically.

“It was really tough for us to be around each other all the time off the court because we were so separate.”

At this point, there’s really no need to dig much deeper here: it is what it is. We knew some of these kids were troubled, and we were pretty certain DJ and Eric rose above it. (Oh, and Kyle Taber and Brett Finkelmeier too.)

Here’s my only comment: How much drugs were all the other guys really doing? I mean, the way Gordon makes it sound, it’s like when these kids weren’t on the court, they were high all the time. To the point where you wouldn’t even think to see them or hang out with them, because they were smoking, or snorting, or injecting or doing whatever.

Yeesh. Was it really that bad?

For what it’s worth: Looks like Cobra Brigade was maybe at least half right.