Bridgette Cyrene Gordon (born April 27, 1967) is the head women's basketball coach of

Florida A&M University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. ...

, and a retired player. She was a member of the United States women's national basketball team, that claimed the gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in

Seoul, South Korea Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. In 2007, Gordon was elected to the

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's bask ...

, located in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

USA Basketball

Gordon was selected to be a member of the team representing the US at the 1987 World University Games held in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. The USA team won four of the five contests. In the opening game against Poland, Gordon was the leading scorer for the US with 18 points. After winning their next game against Finland, the USA faced the host team Yugoslavia. The game went to overtime, but Yugoslavia prevailed, 93–89. The USA faced China in the next game. They won 84–83, but they needed to win by at least five points to remain in medal contention. They won the final game against Canada to secure fifth place. Gordon continued on the USA national team when the team played at the 1988 Olympics, held in

. She averaged 8.8 points per game, including 20 points against Yugoslavia to help the team win all five games and earn the gold medal. Gordon also played with the USA team at the

1991 Pan American Games The 1991 Pan American Games, officially known as the XI Pan American Games () and commonly known as Havana 1991 (), were held in Havana, Cuba from 2 to 18 August 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the Pan American Sports Organi ...

. The team finished with a record of 4–2, but managed to win the bronze medal. The USA team lost a three-point game to Brazil, then responded with wins over Argentina and Cuba, earning a spot in the medal round. The next game was a rematch against Cuba, and this time the team from Cuba won a five-point game. The USA beat Canada easily to win the bronze. Gordon averaged 11.3 points per game.

WNBA career

Gordon was selected in the initial player allocation of the

1997 WNBA draft The 1997 WNBA draft was the 1st draft held by the WNBA through which teams could select new players from a talent pool of college and professional women's basketball players. Unlike later drafts, this draft was unique because there were three d ...

by the Sacramento Monarchs on January 22, 1997. She would only play a total of 50 games in the WNBA, all 50 with the Monarchs. Her debut game was played on June 21, 1997, in a 73–61 win over the Utah Starzz where she recorded 12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. In her rookie season, Gordon played in all 28 of the Monarch's regular season games and started in all 28 of them while averaging 13.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists. The team finished with a 10–18 record and missed the playoffs. In the 1998 season, Gordon started in the first 5 games of the season but then lost her starting spot to Latasha Byears and had her minutes per game drop from 35.0 to 11.5. Due to the drop in minutes, Gordon's stats across the board dropped down to 2.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.4 assists. The Monarchs had an even worse record than the previous year by finishing 8–22. Gordon was waived by the Monarchs on May 3, 1999. She signed a contract with the New York Liberty but would be waived on May 24, 1999, before playing a game for them. After being waived by the Liberty, she would not play in the WNBA again. Her final WNBA game was played on August 12, 1998, in a 71–81 loss to the Starzz where she recorded 2 points and 1 assist.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

Source , - , style="text-align:left" ,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, style="text-align:left" ,

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, style="background:#D3D3D3" , 28° , , style="background:#D3D3D3" , 28° , , 35.0 , , .433 , , .275 , , .785 , , 4.8 , , 2.8 , , 1.4 , , .3 , , 3.0 , , 13.0 , - , style="text-align:left" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, style="text-align:left" ,

, 22 , , 5 , , 11.5 , , .391 , , .000 , , .563 , , 1.3 , , .4 , , .4 , , .0 , , 1.4 , , 2.7 , - , style="text-align:left" , Career , style="text-align:left" , 2 years, 1 team , 50 , , 33 , , 24.7 , , .426 , , .229 , , .756 , , 3.3 , , 1.7 , , .9 , , .2 , , 2.3 , , 8.5

College

, - , style="text-align:left;" , 1987–88 , style="text-align:left;" ,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, 33, , -, , -, , 54.1, , 75.0, , 70.2, , 6.8, , 2.4, , 2.3, , 0.5, , -, , 20.8 , - , style="text-align:left;" , 1988–89 , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 36, , -, , -, , 53.3, , 33.3, , 70.0, , 7.0, , 2.7, , 2.9, , 0.4, , -, , 20.4 , - , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 , Career , 69, , -, , -, , 53.7, , 50.0, , 70.1, , 6.9, , 2.6, , 2.6, , 0.5, , -, , 20.6 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="14", Statistics retrieved from Sports-Reference.

Awards and honors

* 1989—Winner of the Honda Sports Award for basketball * 2x FIBA Women's European Champions Cup (''current EuroLeague)'' with Italian club Pool Comense ( 1993–94, 1994–95)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Bridgette 1967 births Living people All-American college women's basketball players American women's basketball players Basketball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1991 Pan American Games Basketball players from Florida Fenerbahçe women's basketball players Forwards (basketball) Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Sportspeople from DeLand, Florida Sacramento Monarchs players Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball players Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in basketball 21st-century African-American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen United States women's national basketball team players Florida A&M Lady Rattlers basketball coaches Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Year winners