It’s already etched in Nuggets lore three years later, an image inextricable from Christmas basketball. It lives in infamy for the 2022 Phoenix Suns, including Cam Johnson.
He could only watch in awe as Aaron Gordon sent Landry Shamet to another realm. Johnson was Shamet’s teammate back then, not Gordon’s. It was the last year of his rookie-scale contract with Phoenix, and he was sidelined by a right meniscus injury but still traveling with the team. “I had knee surgery early November,” Johnson recalls, “so I was working my way back. I was just rehabbing at the time.