Magic forward Aaron Gordon has left the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Charania explains that Gordon left the bubble due to his left hamstring injury and the “events of (the) past few days.”
Gordon, who suffered a hamstring strain on August 5 vs. Toronto, missed Orlando’s last four seeding games and had yet to play in the postseason. Despite some optimism that he was getting close to returning, the veteran forward was still unable to sprint up and down the court, head coach Steve Clifford said this week. Clifford also told reporters that the team didn’t want to risk Gordon suffering a more serious injury.
With playoff games expected to resume on Friday or Saturday, the Magic’s season could be over by the end of the weekend — Orlando currently trails the Bucks by a 3-1 margin in their first-round series.
Gordon will enter next season with two years left on his contract, having averaged 14.4 PPG, 7.7 RPG, and 3.7 APG in 62 games (32.5 MPG) in 2019/20. He was considered a potential trade candidate before Jonathan Isaac suffered a torn ACL this summer. With Isaac’s availability for the 2020/21 season up in the air, it’s possible Orlando will be more inclined to hang onto Gordon.
it no big deal not like the magic was going to get past the first round
Gordon is on fight to San Francisco. Good time to buy a house now.
Despite rehabbing for 22 days already, Aaron Gordon chose not to stay and support his teammates for what’s likely their elimination game…3 more days – a week at most if they pull off a miracle and push Milwaukee to a seven game series.
Shams tweet reported “and events of past few days,” yet Magic PR didn’t mention that and only gave his injury as the reason he left. So “suddenly” he had to leave because of his injury after already rehabbing the injury in the bubble for +3 weeks.
The departure timing would have been curious without the prior day’s events. With the events + the discrepancy between the Magic’s press release and Shams tweet…well it seems odd.