Victor Oladipo is trying to get back in the NBA, and the former All-Star is making it clear he believes there’s still something left to prove.
After a long run of injuries that pushed him out of the league for an extended stretch, Oladipo says his body is finally ready again and he wants a chance to show he can still help a team. He wrote, “I believe my body is finally right," Oladipo wrote.
"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."
The most recent major setback came in 2023 with the Miami Heat, when he tore his patellar tendon. Even so, Oladipo said that injury changed the way he viewed his comeback attempt.
“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…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,” Oladipo wrote.
Miami may still be part of the picture. According to Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman, “Has been working out at Kaseya Center. And, yes, Heat have monitored,” Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman wrote.
That opens the door to the possibility of a reunion, with the Heat able to evaluate him while he works out at their facility. If a deal comes together, it could be in the form of an Exhibit 10 contract, a two-way deal or a standard NBA contract.
Oladipo has earned $124 million in his career, but right now the focus is much simpler: find a team, get a shot, and prove he can still contribute. With Miami keeping tabs on him, the Heat remain one of the more intriguing teams in the mix as he searches for his next opportunity.
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