Former NBA star Drew Gordon died in a car accident at the age of 33, his agent confirmed.
Gordon, who played for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014, is the brother of Denver Nuggets star Aaron Gordon.
In a statement released Thursday night, his agent Calvin Andrews confirmed that Gordon died in a car accident in Portland, Oregon.
He is survived by his wife Angela and three children.
Gordon hasn’t played in the NBA for 10 years, but he continued to play basketball around the world, and his nomadic career took him to the G-League, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, France, Lithuania, Turkey and Italy.
Prior to his professional career, Gordon played for UCLA and New Mexico, and was a McDonald’s All-American.
He went undrafted in 2012 and headed to Serbia, but then returned in 2014 to play nine games with the 76ers.
Tributes poured in on social media following news of his death, with former Orlando Magic star Michael Carter-Williams writing: “Rest in paradise, Drew Gordon. A great husband, father and teammate.” . @Double0AG (Aaron Gordon) I’m praying for you and your family. I love you and I’m sorry for your loss.’
As of Friday morning, Nuggets star Aaron Gordon had yet to comment on the tragic death of his older brother.
In 2022, Drew made headlines when he told how he fled Ukraine with his family when war broke out.
He was playing in kyiv on a one-year basketball contract and admits he planned to stay to see out the deal, until he received a message from the US embassy telling him to leave the city.
“My advice to him was to get his family out of a war he doesn’t need to fight in,” Aaron Gordon told Andscape at the time.
Drew then returned to Denver near his brother and spoke about his love for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.
“Ukraine is a proud country,” he said. ‘The people are proud to be Ukrainian. There is a lot of history that comes with being Ukrainian and they fight hard for what they believe. They also make sure that whoever visits Ukraine sees its beauty for what it is.
‘There are many monuments that are decades old, from past clashes and conflicts with which they were able to prevail. And they’re good people, man.
“I really respect all the people in Ukraine, not only because it’s a country I played in and they’re nice to basketball players. I’ve seen how they interact with each other. I’ve seen how simple day-to-day life is.
And they are super solid, solid people. And I hope that this war and the current conflict are resolved soon and that they can keep the same energy that they have had on them, because honestly it is something that people can take note of and that they can learn from, because they are good people and they I wish you the best.