Former Indiana Pacers star Victor Oladipo shared an emotional message about his NBA career.
Back in 2017, the Indiana Pacers pulled off a major trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder that sent Paul George out of town in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
While moving on from George, who was the face of the franchise, was tough, the Pacers saw Oladipo embrace the role of becoming the team's new franchise player. He quickly emerged as one of the top up-and-coming stars in the NBA.
During his first season with Indiana back in 2017-18, Oladipo averaged 23.1 points per game to go along with 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.4 steals. He also shot 47.7 percent from the floor and 37.1 percent from three-point range.
For a few years, Oladipo had the Pacers looking like an emerging contender.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck for him and Indiana. On January 23, 2019 in a regular season game against the Toronto Raptors, Oladipo went down with a rupture quad. He was sidelined for over a year before returning, but quickly parted ways with the team.
Oladipo was sent out of town on January 13, 2021, when the Pacers traded him to the Houston Rockets and received Caris LeVert back from the Brooklyn Nets in the deal.
Recently, Oladipo took to social media to share a reflection on his NBA career. He shared some very emotional comments about how quickly his career changed.
“Just imagine this like, so your whole life you wanted to be in the NBA. You get to the league, it’s not as sweet as you thought it would be. Then you get to Indy and it’s like, okay let me take this super seriously and really show everybody that they gotta really stop disrespecting me," Oladipo wrote.
"Finally got to the position that I dreamed about my whole life, leading a team, being the guy. Gone. Come back and you figure out a way to make it work. Then, it happens again.”
Sadly, Oladipo's NBA career is likely over. He ended up playing in 504 career games and making 397 starts during stints with the Orlando Magic, Thunder, Pacers, Rockets, and Miami Heat.
In those appearances, Oladipo produced career averages of 16.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.
At the end of the day, an NBA career can change quickly. Oladipo's story is very clear evidence of that fact.
