{"id":79610,"date":"2024-05-31T11:56:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T15:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=79610"},"modified":"2024-05-31T11:56:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T15:56:36","slug":"former-nba-player-drew-gordon-dies-at-the-age-of-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/31\/former-nba-player-drew-gordon-dies-at-the-age-of-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NBA Player Drew Gordon Dies At The Age of 33"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tragedy has struck the basketball landscape as former NBA player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gordodr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Gordon<\/a> was involved in a car crash in Portland, Oregon on Thursday. It has been confirmed that he has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/40248394\/former-nba-player-drew-gordon-dies-car-accident-age-33\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died at the young age of 33<\/a>.\u00a0Gordon is survived by his wife and three children.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Drew Gordon has passed away in a car accident at 33 years old. Gordon played nine games for the 76ers in the 2014-15 season and has played professionally in US and abroad since college ball at New Mexico and UCLA. Drew is the older brother of Nuggets F Aaron Gordon. RIP.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1796370502484652086?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Former NBA Player Drew Gordon Dies At The Age of 33<\/h2>\n<h3>Accomplished The Goal Of Reaching The NBA<\/h3>\n<p>Listed at 6-9, Gordon played collegiately at UCLA for two years before transferring to New Mexico where he spent his junior and senior seasons. He averaged a double-double in points and rebounds in both his seasons with the Lobos. In 61 games with New Mexico, he posted averages of 13.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks. His senior season saw him named to the All-MWC First Team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udc94 We are heartbroken over the passing of Drew Gordon. A two-time all-conference forward, he helped lead us to the 2012 Mountain West title. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tdleKSxTOF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/tdleKSxTOF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lobo Basketball (@UNMLoboMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UNMLoboMBB\/status\/1796400327765393501?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nGordon went undrafted in 2012. It didn\u2019t stop him from ultimately reaching the NBA though. The power forward eventually made his NBA debut on November 13, 2014. Gordon played nine games with the Philadelphia 76ers totaling 17 points, 18 rebounds, two assists, and one steal. He also played in the G League for the Delaware 87ers and later the Long Island Nets.<\/p>\n<p>Gordon had a lengthy playing career overseas. It started with signing for Partizan Belgrade in Serbia after he went undrafted. He also spent time playing all over the globe in Italy, Turkey, France, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, and Japan achieving plenty of success at his various stops.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Drew Gordon was a nightmare to face during the 2014 Italian league epic semifinal series with his incredible energy and athleticism. Our prayers are going to the family. RIP <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bCs1V1RKPB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/bCs1V1RKPB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Olimpia Milano (@OlimpiaMI1936) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OlimpiaMI1936\/status\/1796451869663138296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was less than a year ago in July of 2023 that Gordon announced his retirement from professional basketball via X.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Thank you basketball for all that you have given me! I have given you my all over the years, I\u2019m retiring on my jersey year. Thank you to all the fans, friends and family that have supported me along my journey!! Next chapter it is! Goodbye 32 hello 33<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 drew gordon (@xtraGORDONary32) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/xtraGORDONary32\/status\/1679143497407008768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Older Brother of Aaron<\/h3>\n<p>Drew\u2019s brother, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gordoaa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Gordon<\/a>, currently plays for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/17\/nikola-jokic-gets-candid-on-blowout-loss\/\" target=\"_self\">Denver Nuggets<\/a>. Aaron was the fourth overall pick of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/17\/magic-mainspring-paolo-banchero-reveals-nba-dream\/\" target=\"_self\">Orlando Magic<\/a> in the 2014 NBA Draft.\u00a0Now ten seasons deep into his NBA career, Aaron won an NBA title with the Nuggets in 2023 as the team\u2019s starting power forward. The 28-year-old has now spent his last three full seasons with Denver. He has career averages of 13.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists.<\/p>\n<p>Thoughts and prayers are with Drew Gordon\u2019s family and friends after this tragedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tragedy has struck the basketball landscape as former NBA player Drew Gordon was involved in a car crash in Portland, Oregon on Thursday. It has been confirmed that he has died at the young age of 33.\u00a0Gordon is survived by his wife and three children. Drew Gordon has passed away in a car accident at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":79657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1608,61,62],"tags":[472],"class_list":["post-79610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76ers","category-basketball","category-international-basketball","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}