“It Felt Like Death”: Victor Oladipo Gets Candid About the Pain and Trauma of His NBA Injuries

After being drafted second overall, Victor Oladipo was seen as a decent starter on the Orlando Magic and OKC Thunder. However, he began to turn heads when he took over the reins of the Indiana Pacers. Oladipo’s production skyrocketed in Indy en route to a career year. He earned his first All-NBA appearance and won Most Improved Player in his first full year with the Pacers, setting himself up for a very productive prime.

Dipo’s Pacers nearly knocked off LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first-round clash, inspiring confidence that Indiana had a star to build around for the foreseeable future. However, that dream quickly evaporated when the explosive guard ruptured a tendon in his right knee in January 2019, effectively ending his career just after it had finally born fruit.

Unfortunately, Oladipo never fully recovered from the season-ending injury, and he would be out of the league shortly after. The 33-year-old shared the immediate shock and distress he felt with Dwight Howard, who has suffered several debilitating setbacks himself. For Oladipo, though, that first injury seemed like the end of the world.

“It was tough. It felt like my soul left my body when I first got hurt, if I’m being honest with you,” Oladipo told the Above the Rim crew. “It was one of the saddest moments I’ve ever experienced as an individual … It’s almost like, you know, you get to the mountaintop, and instead of putting a flag there, you get crucified … It felt like I died on that floor … It felt like death.”

Oladipo shared that he recalled feeling a dent in his leg as he was falling. When he looked up from the ground, his eyes locked onto one person – his mother. “I remember literally as I fall, I look up and I could see my mom. I couldn’t see no one else in the area,” he explained. “I could see my mom’s eyes, and I’m just like, ‘Nah.'”

Prior to his second season with the Pacers in 2018-19, Oladipo was somewhat of an iron man. He had played in under 72 games only once in his first five seasons, but the ramifications of his first, and most devastating, injury proved to have a snowball effect. Oladipo has only played more than half a season once since that ill-fated rupture, his most recent campaign with the Heat in 2022-23.

Soreness and strains earlier in the season quickly turned into a career-defining injury for one of the NBA’s best feel-good stories. After leading the league in steals in 2018-19, Oladipo was primed to be a top two-way talent for years to come. Instead, his magical 2017-18 season will be remembered in the same words as Isaiah Thomas’ 2016-17 campaign: a fantastic run that we didn’t appreciate enough in the moment.

Oladipo has yet to officially announce his retirement as has hinted at a possible return. But he also hasn’t played in either of the last two seasons and isn’t getting any younger. Ignoring what he was once capable of, it’s hard to say if Victor could still play in the NBA. But, if this is it, fans will still remember the 2018 season and that playoff series against LeBron years from now.