Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon may not have won the NBA’s slam dunk contest during the All-Star weekend, but he’s arguably the biggest winner on cardboard from the midseason showcase.
The story lines heading into this one revolved around the big names — the biggest name and story being the final All-Star appearance for Kobe Bryant — and the game’s MVP was a big and well-collected name, too, in Russell Westbrook. Even the dunk contest winner, Zach LaVine, was already well-known with his status as last year’s winner.
Gordon is the one who was introduced to the world — or at least the world of casual basketball fans and collectors.
Gordon was the fourth-overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft out of Arizona where he averaged 12.4 points and eight rebounds a game in his only season there. However, his NBA stats aren’t that hot with 6.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 98 games over two seasons.
He’s started 11 games for Orlando this season and has posted 19 points in a game twice. He’s also had seven double-digit finishes in his last 11 games, so things are looking up there aside from the dunk contest publicity.
When it comes to cardboard, he’s heavily represented with more than 650 different cards beginning in 2014-15 products from Panini America. He’s got 26 different Rookie Cards and more than 200 different certified autographs.
Asking prices on his cards seem loftier now — but softer in spots — especially compared to past sales, but there’s no doubt that a lot more people are familiar with him and his impressive dunks that had the assist from Stuff, the Magic’s dragon mascot.
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