Aaron Gordon says hamstring injury would have sidelined him 2-3 games if Nuggets had advanced: 'I gave it my all'

Yahoo

19-05-2025

Even as the Denver Nuggets fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Game 7 conference semifinals blowout, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon was willing to put his body on the line.
Gordon played through a Grade 2 hamstring strain in the 125-93 loss, and was named as a starter despite being initially very doubtful for the game. But the 29-year-old forward said postgame that he knew the risks of playing through the pain, and was willing to accept them.
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When asked whether he would have been able to keep playing had the Nuggets won and advanced, Gordon said that he likely would have had to sit out two or three games as a result of powering through on Sunday.
"That was probably it. At least for two or three games, into the next round. So I was saying, maybe I can get through this one and the rest a little bit, come back later in the next series," Gordon said.
That, he said, was a risk he was willing to take in order to get Denver through to the conference finals.
"I knew the risks, but I wanted to be out there for my team," Gordon said. "I gave it my all."
Gordon said that there was "never any doubt" that he would play, despite his injury, but that the MRI indicated "something worse than what I was feeling." As a result, he said, he spent the past few days trying various treatments to get himself ready for game time.
"Everything that I could possibly do: hot, cold, contrast, massage, hyperbaric, everything that I could possibly do, just so I could be out there, and fight for my team," Gordon said.
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Gordon said that he didn't feel the injury much during the game, but later admitted that he couldn't sprint at all. He finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.
"Just wish I would've played better," Gordon added.
Nuggets interim head coach David Adelman seemed to disagree, praising Gordon's commitment in his postgame press conference.
"Aaron Gordon is incredible," Adelman said, noting the intense circumstances that Gordon persevered through. "That was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen ... It's just a testament to his toughness."
But Gordon noted during his press conference that part of the reason behind his hamstring injury is the NBA's busy postseason schedule. Teams usually only get one day in between playoff games; if the Nuggets had won, the next series would have tipped off on Tuesday, only two days later.
"A travel day and a recovery day, just two days, I think the product of the game would be a lot better," Gordon said. "Just to give all these professional athletes just one more day of rest, and you would see a higher level of basketball. Probably less blowouts."
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Gordon noted the number of injuries to high-profile players during the playoffs, mentioning Stephen Curry's hamstring injury, which kept him out of four games, plus the season-ending Achilles injuries to Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum. Similarly, Tatum's teammate, Jaylen Brown, has reportedly been playing on a partially torn meniscus for the past few months.
"You saw it around the league," Gordon said. "There's guys all around the league that are suffering fatigue-based injuries because the games are so closely stacked together.