Published April 23, 2026 in The New York Times/Athletic
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7214076/2026/04/22/aaron-gordon-brother-denver-nuggets-nba-playoffs/
Aaron Gordon kept coming back to the canvas, back to the brush. Day after day, painting what he felt. What seemed stuck inside. What he couldn’t express on the basketball court — or anywhere else.
He called the painting “Caged Bird.”
“It’s about following the present moment,” Gordon says, “to avoid being trapped.”
When he’s painting, he feels some peace. Normalcy. Unlike much of the outside world, things seem to make more sense here. In a room by himself, painting, he doesn’t have to be perfect. He doesn’t have to perform. There is no one to impress.
It’s just “me, the canvas and my thoughts,” says Gordon, a Denver Nuggets forward. (READ FULL STORY HERE).
Mirin Fader 