A few blocks from where Summer League is being held in Orlando, there’s a small downtown church. Up a flight of dusty stairs, past a linoleum floored hallway and through a set of double doors, there is a simple rec league basketball court that hosts a men’s league in the afternoons. On Wednesday, the normal lunch-break ballers were waiting for the gym to be cleared.
Out walked a dozen Thunder staffers from assistant coaches to scouts to team personnel, and then the newest member of the team, guard Victor Oladipo. In the middle of July, still months away from the beginning of the 2016-17 NBA season, Oladipo and the Thunder staff took the sweltering walk to the upstairs gym, and got to business. It wasn’t fancy, but it was effective, as Oladipo proved his hard working reputation.
What stood out to the combo guard, as he exited the court, was how many Thunder staffers took the time between shootaround at 9 a.m. and the Summer League game at 5 p.m. to facilitate his workout, analyze it and to support him.
“It means a lot. They don’t have to be here. They don’t have to come in here and help me work, but they care,” OIadipo said, shaking his head with respect. “That’s hard to find. It’s not just one day. It’s consistently every day. When you have that support system it gives you even more confidence to perform at a high level.”
Accolades precede the number two overall selection from the 2013 NBA Draft. He was named the Sporting News Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year, a consensus first-team All-American, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and then eventually the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team in 2014.
Watch: Victor Oladipo 1-on-1
Through three seasons in the NBA, Oladipo has averaged 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game. In 2015-16, he registered career-bests in shooting percentages from the field, three-point line and free throw line. Before all that, however, he was just an exceedingly athletic and tenacious kid growing up on the east coast with three sisters.
“Growing up I wasn’t the most talented, I wasn’t the most highly recruited or the best player in my city or anything like that,” Oladipo recalled. “In order for me to get on the floor, I knew I had to work. I wanted to be in the NBA so badly that I would do anything to be here.”
“After a while, my skill caught up to my mentality and passion,” he continued. “That’s kind of when everything started settling into place. I’m still learning now. I’m still getting better right now.”
It might not sound like much, but in the NBA three years is fairly experienced, especially on a Thunder roster that is primed with emerging players in Oladipo’s age range of 24. The attacking guard’s 16.0 points per game in 2015-16 came on 43.8 percent shooting, including 34.8 percent from three and 83.0 percent from the free throw line. As young players in the league tend to do, Oladipo has and will continue to become more efficient in his game.
During his first three seasons, all with the Orlando Magic, Oladipo was thrust into the starting lineup 167 times in 224 games, giving him a wealth of experience as he makes strides forward. Perspective, and self-awareness, is critical in this league. Oladipo has it and aims to use it with the help of the Thunder this offseason.
“You have to learn to separate yourself. Everyone in this league is highly talented. Everybody is in this league is highly skilled,” Oladipo said. “The greats separate themselves. When you figure that out, you’ll take your next leap as a player and as a person.”
“The biggest thing that I’ve really learned over the past three years is my spots on the floor and where I’m effective,” Oladipo added. “This summer I just want to perfect those spots and watch film and learn how to get to those spots as much as possible.”
Like it would be for any player, or really any person, finding out that you’ll have a different job in a different city with different coworkers would be a shock to the system. It took almost no time, though, for Oladipo’s emotions to swell when he learned he was headed to Oklahoma City.
The NBA world is small. Players talk, they change team and everyone seems to know everyone else from back in the day. When Oladipo realized he was going to have THUNDER written across his chest, he knew he was in for an incredible experience. Just like his own reputation, the Thunder’s is well known too.
“How high class and high character everybody is. I’ve heard great things about the organization,” Oladipo noted. “What excites me the most is going out there and being a part of something bigger than myself.”
“I can’t wait. Playing there the past three years, I’ve been wearing a different jersey, and I still get excited to play in there,” he concluded, referencing the raucous crowd at Chesapeake Energy Arena. “Now to have an opportunity to play for them and have them on my side. It’s definitely going to be exciting.”