Victor Oladipo was just getting into a groove when the Indiana Pacers and NBA season was suspended
While the Indiana Pacers have had plenty of storylines to carry them throughout this season, Victor Oladipo has been at the background of it all.
Going down with a gruesome quad injury last January, he was out for an entire calendar year, missing nearly the entire first half of the 2020 season.
Upon his arrival, Oladipo showed flashes of his old self but certainly showed up with some expected rust. He struggled to find his way in each and every game and clearly was determined to locate his rhythm and generate some chemistry with his new teammates.
Plenty of his most consistent teammates had left for other teams in the summer’s free agency, and last time he had played Domantas Sabonis was their big man off the bench. This year, he was their best player.
His recovery was concluding, and he was getting back to his full game-ready self off of a minutes restriction.
But then the unexpected happened, and his season would be put on hold, this time as a result of the entire NBA being put on pause, not just his season.
Speaking to the media for the first time since the NBA season was suspended in mid-March, Oladipo talked about the struggle of the unexpected halt coming right as he was starting to find his footing.
To ESPN and the media in a conference call, Oladipo said:
"“It hurt just because it took me a while to come back and then, obviously, this happens and now you miss more… I was out there playing, going as best I can, as hard as I can. To say if I was 100 percent out there, I don’t know if I could say that. I’m just going to try and do my best to get better and get stronger.”"
Oladipo almost certainly had not reached that 100 percent mark. His 13 games were encouraging in spots, but many of them fell below the bar of what Pacers fans have come to expect from Oladipo.
In those games this season, Oladipo averaged 13.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game on 39.1 percent shooting from the field and 30.4 percent beyond the arc.
Should the season be canceled, it will be viewed as a lost season for Oladipo. We’ll never know if he could have reached a higher mark this year and pushed the team deeper than expected in the postseason.
It has yet to be determined how the NBA will proceed, and the Pacers certainly could surprise in a neutral location with possible single-game elimination.
Even if this year is canceled, that doesn’t mean there’s no next year. And Oladipo is remaining positive and looking forward to finding his way, no matter what that takes and no matter what it may look like.
"“Even before this surfaced, I was dealing with trying to come back, trying to get my quickness back, learn how to walk again… But I found a way and I’m going to keep finding a way until I think I fulfill my potential. And to be honest, I’m not going to stop even when I’ve done that because I always think I can do more.”"
Oladipo is in a contract year next season and will have something to prove. After winning Most Improved Player of the Year in 2018 and making his first All-Star game, he made another All-Star game the following year.
We’ll never know what this year could have been. But Oladipo is determined to show what will come next.