Aaron Gordon is still salty about Dwyane Wade’s Dunk Contest snub

Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon might say he is over his Dunk Contest defeat. But a new diss track directed at Dwyane Wade says otherwise.

NBA players do not have a lot to do these days. Without even access to a basketball court — until Friday, maybe — they have had to make the best of their time trying to stay in shape and waiting for the season to resume.

Like all of us in our social isolation or prevented from going to work (or furloughed, perhaps), we are getting a little stir crazy trying to find something to do to keep us occupied.

Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon has turned to music, something he was exploring in his free time anyway. He dropped his first music video a few weeks ago. But Sunday, came something very different.

Aaron Gordon entered the diss track game, releasing “9/10” targeting Dwyane Wade for giving him a nine during the Dunk Contest.

It appears Gordon is still a bit salty about his loss in the Dunk Contest in February:

Sitting on his couch drinking some of Wade’s branded wine, Gordon sings:

"“Saw you in the hall,//you said young’n put on a show.// Didn’t know that was code for you about to get rolled.// Even Adam silver told me I deserved the gold.”"

He then made a lyric that he even had to bleep out in his official music video release. Salty indeed.

Aaron Gordon later would mention how he jumped over the tallest guy in the building — former UCF Knight and Boston Celtics center Tacko Fall — and getting eight 10s. He also pretty clearly states that he is retired from the Dunk Contest.

There were plenty of hard feelings after the Dunk Contest ended. Gordon was clearly frustrated in his media availability after the Dunk Contest in February. He said it pretty clearly, “What are we even doing here?” as the media needed some time to set up and ask him questions. The frustration then was written on his face and in his extremely salty words.

That appears still to be lingering.

Gordon is a competitor. It surely kills him that he put on two amazing Dunk Contest performances and walked out without a trophy. Teammate Terrence Ross, who won the Dunk Contest in 2013, has said repeatedly that Aaron Gordon is a better dunker and his dunk contests easily would have beaten his.

In 2016, Gordon had the dunk of the night with his sit-down dunk. But he lost in overtime to Zach LaVine.

This past year, Gordon put together five dunks that garnered a perfect score of 50. He had the dunk of the night with his 360, one-handed jam off the side of the backboard. And he probably had the second-best dunk of the night with his jam of Fall that got him only a 47.

Gordon knows how to put on a dunk contest show. In both 2016 and 2020, he was the talk of the night. Even though he did not leave with the trophy.

To lose twice in overtime when the public and the crowd seemed to believe you won has to sting. It may not mean much in the big scheme of things, but having the chance to win something is still having the chance to win something. And in a competitive space like the NBA that means something.

Still, Gordon comes off a bit petty here.

That might be the point. I am not big into rap or diss tracks or anything like that. It sure seems like Gordon is trying to claim he is over the Dunk Contest defeat while not actually being over it.

Or maybe Gordon is just bored and looking for a way to express his frustration. Good on him for finding an artistic way to do that and for pursuing his interests while basketball is on hold — although, assuming this was shot in the last month, he does appear to have access to a hoop.

I find the overdubbing to be a bit much. But, like I said, this is not my style. So I do not want to overanalyze the quality of his music.

In any case, this is probably not as good as his first effort — “Pull Up.”

Shout out to Mohamed Bamba and Wesley Iwundu for making an appearance in this video shot at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. Markelle Fultz also reportedly wants to be involved as Aaron Gordon tries to complete his album.

That at least shows teammates are having fun with this side project from Gordon.

Gordon told Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated that he hopes to put together a full album by September if the pandemic allows. some of his teammates are likely to join him in the studio.

This will not be Gordon’s last musical efforts. He has money (clearly) and ambition. So he is having fun going after his passion project.

But let’s just hope the basketball players get back to the court soon. Because Gordon is definitely better at basketball than he is at rapping.

And the ultimate way to shut Wade up is to go out and win on the court where it matters.