Arizona’s Aaron Gordon named USA Basketball’s 2013 Male Athlete of the Year
Jan 14, 2014, 5:37 PM | Updated: 6:39 pm
USA Basketball named Arizona freshman Aaron Gordon its 2013 Male Athlete of the Year.
Gordon helped USA win a gold medal at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship and was also with USA Basketball in the 2013 Nike Hoops Summit.
Gordon averaged team-highs of 12.6 points and 6.2 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game during the World Championship.
“It’s a great honor,” Gordon said. “USA Basketball is a really good program. I respect everybody associated with USA Basketball, so for them to recognize me as Male Athlete of the Year is an incredible feeling.”
Gordon is currently averaging 12.2 points and 7.9 rebounds for the top-ranked Wildcats, who are off to a school-record 17-0 (4-0) start.
His numbers are not on the same level as some of the nation’s other elite freshman, but his team-first attitude has helped the Wildcats, and also made him a valuable member of Team USA.
“Aaron is a great player, and the thing I really give him and the rest of the players credit for is that every single one of those guys is a high-profile player and they all knew going in that there was going to be some form of sacrifice that was going to have to take place for us to win,” said Billy Donovan, USA and University of Florida head coach. “No one was going to score 25 points, no one was going to play 35 minutes, it had to be a collective group effort and their buy-in ability toward that was tremendous.”
Recent Previous winners of the award include LeBron James, Jabari Parker, Kevin Durant, James McAdoo and Jason Kidd.
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