8 weeks after his knee surgery, Indiana Pacers star Victor Oladipo is walking around without a brace, crutches, or any help.
Two months ago, Victor Oladipo looked down at his right knee and knew his season was over. What soon followed was surgery to fix the ruptured quadriceps tendon in his knee. The Indiana Pacers would be without their star player the rest of the way.
A few weeks ago Oladipo was walking around and shooting with a brace, but he was slow and wasn’t walking naturally. It was encouraging, but a reminder of how far he has to go.
But 8 weeks after the injury, Victor is walking around under his own power in a video he shared on Instagram. He looked a lot more comfortable than he did just a few weeks ago, too.
In the video, his doctor, Jeff Ruiz, tells him to wear his brace in public but that in private and in rehab he can go without it. Dr. Ruiz also states that Oladipo’s balance is “excellent.”
It’s only him walking, but when your knee cap wasn’t attached to your knee not too long ago, it’s progress.
While there’s no way he’ll return this season, it certainly gives hope that a healthy Oladipo will be there when the regular season begins in October later this year.
The Indiana Pacers are missing Victor Oladipo
In today’s hyper-analytical coverage of the NBA, we sometimes overlook the simple act of scoring as something easy, or at least not as hard or as valuable as some of the other things in basketball. The Pacers are certainly learning that without Oladipo, scoring becomes much harder, especially in “clutch” situation.
Even in those non-clutch situations and more often than not now, in the third quarter, the Pacers struggle to put points on the board. Obviously, Oladipo does more than just score for Indiana, but just as obvious is the fact that Indiana needs a playmaker badly now.
This was extremely clear during the 24-0 run the Oklahoma City Thunder reeled off in Wednesday’s loss, the longest in the NBA this season.
The Pacers are 20-18 in games without Oladipo this season, but since he went down for the season in late January, Indiana is 13-14. They’ve lost the last nine road games as well.
Get well soon, Victor Oladipo. Your health is the most important thing but the Indiana Pacers could use your playmaking skills as soon as possible.