Dear NBA GMs,
I want to tell you about two dreams.
The first dream is my mom’s, and she had it way back when she was pregnant with me and my twin sister, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in 1992. In this dream, she saw Hakeem Olajuwon, the greatest Nigerian hooper who’s ever lived. He was giving her an autographed basketball. And … that’s it! That’s the full dream. But that’s all my mom needed. We’re a very spiritual family. We love God. And she took this as a message from a higher power, that one of her kids was supposed to grow up to play the game of basketball.
You have to understand: My parents aren’t athletes by any means. They’re Nigerian immigrants through and through. And like many Nigerian immigrants, they believed that our opportunities in this country would come from educating ourselves, and using our minds. We weren’t part of a culture where it was normal for someone to make the NBA … or at least we didn’t see it that often, you know? So my mom wasn’t trying to impress anyone with this. But still. She told me from day one, she had this dream.
So when I fell in love with the game at an early age, just from sitting in the bleachers watching my older sister play … and from staying up late watching those Bulls and Lakers teams in the Finals … and from imitating my three GOATs (MJ, Kobe, my sister) on my uncle’s hoop in his driveway after church on Sundays…… and then I started to show signs of having some actual ability??? Man, I have to be honest with you. It felt like destiny.
Then move ahead to 2013 … it’s Draft Night. I’m 21. Been on an amazing journey just to get to this moment. My agent turns to me and he says, “Hey Vic, it’s gonna be you at #2 to Orlando.” But there’s TV cameras on us so I’m trying not to act too excited. Don’t want to give it away. And I’m just sitting there for a minute, in between him saying that and the pick coming in … and it’s like my whole journey is flashing before my eyes.
I’m thinking about how my dad worked three jobs, and my mom went to nursing school, just so my sisters and I could have the best education possible. I’m thinking about how people clowned on my offensive game at first, since it was slower to develop, because I didn’t have the resources a lot of other kids had (so I did things like build my own hoop, and then accidentally made it nine feet tall … smh). I’m thinking about how Coach Crean asked a reporter in private once if they thought I could be a pro, and they were like, Nah come on. He’s just an athlete. What’s he doing that 200 other athletes can’t do? I’m thinking about ALL of that.
But then it’s David Stern at the podium, “…..with the second pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Orlando Magic select Victor Oladipo, of Indiana University.” And then it’s me up there shaking his hand. And then it’s a whirlwind of media. And then it’s…… man, it’s the craziest thing that happened.
I finish up my media, and I’m walking backstage toward the green room to meet my family. But before I can get there, I see them about halfway down the hall. And my mom, she’s standing there with this strange expression on her face. Almost frantic. I’m kind of worried for a second. I motion over to my twin sister, and I’m like, “Hey, is she OK?!? What’s going on?!?” And my sister is like, “No….. Victor. LOOK.” And she points to my right, past my mom. It’s Hakeem Olajuwon. He was there because this was David Stern’s last draft as commissioner, and Hakeem was the first pick that Stern ever announced — so they brought him back to help celebrate. And my mom had just run into him, backstage, on her way to meet me after I got picked. And of course she told Hakeem about her dream. And he autographed a basketball for her, just like she dreamt he did.
That was my first night in the NBA.
A lot has happened since then.
Those first few years in the league, I was still finding myself. I had been a 4-man in high school, and only moved to the guard spot in college … but even at Indiana, I never really played point guard. So when the Magic put me at the point, right out the gate as I was starting my NBA career … that was almost like an adjustment on top of an adjustment, you know?
I also think it was a tough situation for us in general, where we were losing a lot … went through multiple head coaches … I actually think if the play-in had existed back then, maybe we’d have gotten some playoff reps, and the energy could’ve been different. But it just felt like we never quite got that arrow pointed up…… and then suddenly I’m getting traded to OKC. Then the next summer, just like that, I’m getting traded out of OKC. Whew!!! It was a lot. To tell you the truth, I still look at that whole chapter so positively, though. Being a young player in this league….. It’s just an exciting thing. And I think a lot of my so-called failures from those years, they ended up being building blocks for me down the road.
Then that first season with the Pacers…… what can I even say??? It was perfect. It was like they had a job opening, where there’s a lot of responsibility but it’s this great opportunity, and I was the exact right candidate with the exact right experience for it. Those turnovers that I made too many of in Orlando, while trying to learn point guard? I feel like each one of them taught me something. How to become a better ball handler, a better passer … how to find my spots on the floor … how to change speeds with purpose. I also learned a lot from getting to play with Russ during his MVP year. Dude is such a special player and human. The way that he willed us into being a winning program….. honestly, for me, it was so profound. So when I got to Indy, and the message was Vic, it’s your team. High usage, ball in your hands, keys to the car … I was like, say less.
And the fact that it was Indiana just made it that much sweeter. I’m an emotional player, which is something I take a lot of pride in. I feed off connection, I feed off energy. And Indy showing me love, and treating me like their own, I think it played a real part in the heights I was able to reach there. I remember our playoff series against the Cavs, in 2018, we were down 3–2 and it’s Game 6 at home. So the night before, I went to the movies. And a Cavs fan spotted me at the theater, and was like, “HEY BRO. Y’ALL ARE GOING HOME TOMORROW NIGHT.” Of course my first thought was, Wait. Does this guy know he’s not in Cleveland right now? But I just shouted back to him, at the top of my lungs, “NO WE AIN’T!!!!! NO WE AIN’T!!!!!” And honestly….. It really was like that, my first year in Indiana. I felt an amazing connection with that city, that state, those fans. Then I went out there in Game 6 and had probably the game of my life, putting up a triple double, going bucket for bucket with maybe the greatest of all time, defending our home court, and forcing a Game 7. Man, no lie……… I thought the roof was going to come off the building that night. I wish that feeling could have lasted forever.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever.
When I ruptured my quad tendon, it was a tough thing to accept. I was coming off the best year of my career: made my first All Star, got MVP votes, won Most Improved … and we were also having team success. Fifth in the East, then took the Cavs to the limit. And in my mind? My NBA greatness, it still felt like destiny. But then I was having a little knee trouble early on during my second Pacers season. And although it was “one in a million” to rupture my quad tendon from playing through it … I guess I was that one in that million.
So I got surgery, I rehabbed like crazy, and I came back a year later … right before the pandemic. Then I played in the Bubble, because I just wanted to get out there so badly. But in the Bubble it’s like I was on one leg. Any force on my knee, it felt like knives going through. And yet at the same time, it was sounding like everything should be OK. Which really messed with my head. I started to doubt myself, then I started to blame myself. And I think by my fourth season with the Pacers, where I STILL wasn’t feeling right??? Man. By that point I was so low. And when they traded me in January 2021, almost two years from the day I got injured….…. I didn’t have nothing left to do but cry.
Then in 2023, with Miami, I tore my patellar tendon. And to be honest, I actually think that injury was a blessing in disguise. Because from the moment my injuries first started, it’s like I’d been on this chase. I’d been chasing the idea of what we were so close to achieving as a team in Indy, and who I was so close to becoming as a player in the league. And it’s like ever since then … I’d just been trying so hard to get BACK there, you know?? So hard that I think I was rushing the process, and trying to make up for lost time. But my patella injury changed all that. Like to me that was God’s way of saying, Victor. You need to slow down, and get right, and stop chasing the ghost of what could have been. Then you need to build yourself back up into something that’s real.
And for the last three years, that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s taken a LOT of work. In my rehab … in the gym … and yeah, I’ll keep it a million with you: in therapy as well. I think as NBA players, we’re taught to put so much love into this game. And of course that’s a beautiful thing. But it can also make it hard to cope, or to find peace, if the game ever stops loving you back. And the game definitely broke my heart there for a while. Honestly, there’s times when I think about these past almost eight years … and my heart still aches. But I know there’s no reward at the end of regret. And I know I’m one of God’s angels. And I KNOW I’m still my mother’s son.
So I figure it’s time to play basketball again.
Now I want to tell you about the second dream.
This dream…….. it’s mine, and I had it about my daughter. Actually, I have it about my daughter — pretty much every day. Her name is Naomi, but I call her Nomi. She’s four and a half. And this dream isn’t about what she’s supposed to do, or what she’s destined to accomplish.
It’s about what type of person I want her to feel like she can be in this world.
And when I think about the version of me that’s most going to set that example for her?? Well … it ain’t the version that you last saw on an NBA court, at 30: a guy who was at war with his own body and mind, and struggling to understand why these bad things kept happening to him. But I’ll tell you something else……. It also ain’t the version that you saw walking to that podium, with his whole career in front of him, after shaking David Stern’s hand at 21. Or the version that you saw climbing toward the mountain top, after going toe to toe with LeBron in the playoffs at 25. Nah.
It’s this version, right now, that I want Nomi to see.
Me, in this moment of my life, at 34 years old. The version of her dad that got kicked all the way down the mountain, then spent years trying to climb back up, only to get kicked back down, again and again … but never once quit trying to climb. The version of her dad that, let’s be real, is probably getting counted out by a lot of people, and is probably getting laughed at by a few of them … but has managed to keep his faith, and keep his purpose. The version of her dad that’s finally found the perspective, and the humility, to write a letter like this one. To say to any GM who’s willing to listen: I believe my body is finally right. I believe I still have GREAT (and more importantly, WINNING) basketball in front of me. I believe I can be a valuable contributor to an NBA locker room. And what I’m asking for right now is an opportunity to prove it.
Nomi, man…… she’s still so young. But as she grows up, and if she’s ever in a place where she wants to take lessons from my life, or bookmark pages from my story … I really just hope that this is the one she comes back to the most. I hope that this is the page she can turn to when it’s tough times. And I hope that when she does turn to it, she realizes she’s strong like her dad … but also that she’s allowed to show weakness like her dad. Because if it’s coming from a feeling that’s true, it’s all strength. And I’m already so proud of her.
I hope she’s proud of me, too.
So that’s where I’m at with everything. I don’t know how my journey here is going to end……. Maybe a team out there will give me a chance. Maybe no team will. That’s really up to you all. But if you’re in an NBA front office, and you took the time to read this: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I can promise you one thing, always, about my basketball story … from the first page to the last.
It’s a love story.
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