Victor Oladipo striving for greatness: ‘I want to be a legend’

The NBA continues its hiatus from the COVID-19 pandemic. DMV native Victor Oladipo has taken the time to heel and train further. He suffered a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee in January 2019. He sat out the remainder of the season, and much of the 2019-20 season.

Oladipo returned in time to play 13 games before the league suspended play due to the coronavirus. He admitted he wasn’t 100% when he returned. He now has more time to heel while the league ponders to restart the season or not.

Meanwhile, Oladipo told Michael Lee of the Athletic, he is striving to be a legend on the court, leaning on his days of playing basketball in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

“The money is great, obviously, and the lifestyle is cool, but coming from where I come from, if they ain’t talking about you as one of the best, it’s no point in you even playing. That’s what I got from PG County,” Oladipo said. “I want to be a legend, period, when it comes to this game. That’s why I work as hard as I do. I remember when no one knew who I was, and that’s what keeps me going every day. That makes me work harder every day. That’s why it’s so hard to take a break because it’s so many things I need to do.”

Recently, Oladipo executive produced along with Kevin Durant, Quinn Cook and Rich Kleiman a documentary on basketball pipeline of Prince George’s County Maryland, “Basketball County: In The Water” that premiered on Showtime last week.

Before he was second overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, a budding NBA star and the 2018 Most Improved Player of the Year, Oladipo played high school ball at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, MD. As junior, he was coming off the bench.

However, he credits David Adkins, who is now a development coach for the Washington Wizards, for working to develop him into a sought after recruit. He leaned on that dedication to make him a top draft pick after three seasons at Indiana.

Oladipo is now working hard to get back to level of play he displayed before his injury. In 2017-18, he averaged a career-high 23.1 points and led the league with 2.4 steals per game. He shot career highs of 47.7% from the field and 37.7% from three.

Oladipo earned the first of two All-Star Game nods. But that momentum came to a crashing halt when he suffered the devastating injury. He will look to rebuild himself to being a dominate force on the court, a legend, in his own words.