Aaron Gordon

Denver forward, who ranks second in NBA in dunks this season, goes coast-to-coast in overtime for memorable slam vs. Phoenix.

That was the [second-highest total](https://stathead.com/tiny/BnyCv) of his career and tied for the most on record in an NBA game played on Christmas. Gordon, meanwhile, is enjoying what is arguably the best campaign of his professional career thus far. Gordon sprinted the ball up the court in transition before he eventually took off from an impossibly far distance.

Here's a less fun fact: he's never actually won the Slam Dunk Contest despite racking up the most 50-point dunks in its history (eight). Here's the most fun ...

[NBA](/nba/) today who can do something like this late in a key game with another human being standing between him and the rim. Had Phoenix hung on to win the game, he would've been one of the heroes of the night. [Landry Shamet](/nba/players/2203585/landry-shamet/) misses a shot that would've given Phoenix the lead. Anyone can pull off a cool dunk when they're alone on the floor. Here's the most fun fact of the night: on Sunday, Gordon unleashed a dunk more fearsome than anything ever scored by the judges. [Aaron Gordon](/nba/players/2135532/aaron-gordon/) wears the number 50 because of the many, many times he's achieved that score in the Slam Dunk Contest.

Aaron Gordon called it the best in-game dunk he'd ever had.

At every level of the game, Gordon was there. There was nothing, Jokic said, that Gordon couldn’t do on the floor. Everything Gordon needed to say, about his dunk, his dominance, and Denver’s burgeoning championship potential, had already been said. In the wake of last year’s first-round playoff ouster to Golden State, Gordon made a public commitment to re-focus and raise his basketball IQ. Now, not only does he have Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown to handle smaller guards, he’s got a plethora of offensive options who can alleviate his playmaking burden. On a night where Jokic authored another 40-point triple-double, and Murray morphed into a flamethrower in the fourth quarter, Gordon’s aerial acrobatics remained the indelible moment. Even when he’s ducking, he’s reading where the pass can come from.” What he left in his wake was Shamet, who dropped to the floor, and a shell-shocked Suns team that couldn’t compete with Gordon’s raw athleticism. In some photos captured of the moment, he almost was. Up 124-123 with 24 seconds left, Gordon corralled his 12th rebound of the night and picked up steam on the opposite side of the floor. He said he felt how Shamet’s body had impeded him and knew a review would yield an and-1. When the whistle blew, alleging a charge, Gordon knew it wouldn’t hold.

Instead of taking a conservative approach to run time off the clock, Aaron Gordon rose up over Phoenix's Landry Shamet, who was set up to take a charge ...

News

In a crucial moment during an overtime battle with the Phoenix Suns, Denver forward Aaron Gordon seemed to fly to the rim. Analysts are calling it the dunk ...

In it, as Gordon levitates toward the hoop and Shamet is being sent to the floor, every player seems to have a look of disbelief on their face. The crowd flew into a frenzy as Gordon fell back to earth. Then, with around 30 seconds left on the clock, and Denver leading Phoenix 124-123, Suns guard Landry Shamet failed to make a shot that would have pushed Phoenix into the lead.

Where did Landry Shamet's soul go after Aaron Gordon sent him to the astral plane?

Saturday was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and a moment he’ll want to forget. Denver’s overtime victory put it a game over the New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies for first place in the West while Phoenix dropped three games back. We won’t know how much of Shamet spiritually or physically was left on Denver’s Ball Arena floor until the Suns step on it again on Tuesday. Unfortunately, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time after Devin Booker removed himself four minutes into the action. However, Murray’s dunk wasn’t nearly as injurious to Phoenix as the detonation Aaron Gordon activated in the atmosphere above the tin. However, before Shamet arrived at his fateful encounter, the Suns led 113-111 with 15 seconds remaining and needed a stop.

Aaron Gordon dunks on Landry Shamet. Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images. If you belong the camp that believes the NBA season only ...

Now it’s all about sprinting into an empty pocket of space, confident that the ball will be flicked there by a slow-footed and red-faced man, and then jamming that ball through the hoop as hard as he can. There’s a huge collective relief, an uncoiling of tension, when a promising young player lands in a more forgiving context, a team that collapses the gap between what he can actually do and what he is asked to do. Upon review it was changed to a blocking foul—the holiday’s sole basketball miracle—and Gordon was awarded a free throw. The call on the floor was a charge. [light](https://defector.com/lets-take-stock-of-the-horrors-of-the-brick-for-vic-campaign/) and [joy](https://defector.com/a-suggestion-for-how-to-watch-your-puke-team-without-puking/), but I also wouldn’t have have faulted you for napping through the afternoon and evening. Knicks-Sixers made for a good appetizer but the middle three games of the Christmas slate were duds in terms of of late-game competitive urgency.

Aaron Gordon called it the best in-game dunk he'd ever had. Jamal Murray deemed it the “dunk of the year.” Outside of Gordon, Nikola Jokic had the best ...

At every level of the game, Gordon was there. There was nothing, Jokic said, that Gordon couldn’t do on the floor. Everything Gordon needed to say, about his dunk, his dominance, and Denver’s burgeoning championship potential, had already been said. In the wake of last year’s first-round playoff ouster to Golden State, Gordon made a public commitment to re-focus and raise his basketball IQ. Now, not only does he have Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown to handle smaller guards, he’s got a plethora of offensive options who can alleviate his playmaking burden. On a night where Jokic authored another 40-point triple-double, and Murray morphed into a flamethrower in the fourth quarter, Gordon’s aerial acrobatics remained the indelible moment. Even when he’s ducking, he’s reading where the pass can come from.” What he left in his wake was Shamet, who dropped to the floor, and a shell-shocked Suns team that couldn’t compete with Gordon’s raw athleticism. In some photos captured of the moment, he almost was. Up 124-123 with 24 seconds left, Gordon corralled his 12th rebound of the night and picked up steam on the opposite side of the floor. He said he felt how Shamet’s body had impeded him and knew a review would yield an and-1. When the whistle blew, alleging a charge, Gordon knew it wouldn’t hold.

After two years of Jokic carrying a largely sundry crew through the woods, the Nuggets have finally formed back into a true showcase squad, worthy of many ...

And Murray’s ecstatic flamethrower mode has been seen just in flashes, with a bit more of boneheadedness to it than is optimal, for now—the Nuggets may have beat the Suns in regulation, on Christmas, had he been about 20 percent more judicious in crunch time. And he has begun, again, to realize in his mildly begrudging way that he is not just a passing nexus point-center but also one of the best scorers alive, and that his team most thrives when he is spinning his hulking body with punishing grace toward the rim, while also breaking souls with his uncannily off-footed fade-aways. Gordon has been excellent all year, having clearly the best season of his career—despite Nikola Jokic contending for an MVP trophy for a third-straight season and Jamal Murray’s return to the lineup, Gordon’s usage is a tick higher than it’s ever been in Denver, and the first-place Nuggets are better off for it. Perhaps more than anything, it’s a testament to Gordon that he stood as much as he did when Jokic had his second 40-point triple-double in the past week, finishing with 41, 15 assists, and 15 rebounds. [did that one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwhz9yXax3I&ab_channel=ChazNBA), a verb was born: going forward, no one will be unsure what it means to say someone “just got Landry Shamet’d on.” (It’s really too bad for Shamet, who made up for Devin Booker’s absence by playing the game of his life with 31 points). [the moment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q6n5NE6Cb4&ab_channel=NBA)—standing as especially bold, and as the defining image of his career to this point.

Only one person could steal the microphone from Aaron Gordon, and that person did just that.

The lead was short-lived, however, and the Nuggets needed Murray to drive for a dunk with 11 seconds left to force overtime. Murray inbounded the ball to Jokic with 15 seconds left. “I know Ayton didn’t want to leave Joker, who had like 40 (points) at the time,” Murray said. One of the NBA’s plays of the year almost wasn’t, as Gordon was originally called for a charge on the play. With the Nuggets up a point in the final 30 second of overtime, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope pushed a rebound in Gordon’s direction. The Suns had a shot to force a second overtime in the final 10 seconds, but Shamet, who hit seven 3-pointers on the night, couldn’t sink an eighth.

Think about the circumstances Aaron Gordon was dealing with in overtime. It was only a one-point game. The Nuggets were clinging to a 124-123 lead with less ...

“It was a 3-on-2 and he didn’t show he was going to dunk it. “I didn’t think he was going to dunk it,” said Murray. 50, the number that signifies a perfect dunk contest score. “And it raised me up a little bit higher.” Of course, Gordon has never won a dunk contest. The Nuggets forward stood for a few moments under the basket he had just destroyed dazed and confused. Dunk of the year for sure.” Considering the situation and the volume of the moment, on national TV on Christmas Day, it was an all-time slam. “It was a loose, ball,” Gordon said as he began recapping the sequence. Tony Brothers took another look and reversed the ruling. Then I saw I had a 2-on-1 with me and Joker, You know you’ve got to play Joker and play a little cat-and-mouse game. It was only a one-point game.