{"id":768307,"date":"2022-12-12T17:46:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T22:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=768307"},"modified":"2022-12-12T17:46:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T22:46:28","slug":"victor-oladipo-set-to-play-in-indiana-for-the-time-since-he-left-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/news\/nba\/victor-oladipo-set-to-play-in-indiana-for-the-time-since-he-left-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Oladipo Set to Play in Indiana For the Time Since He Left in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=miami+heat\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=miami+heat\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Heat<\/a> head into Indianapolis for their 28th game of the season against the Indiana Pacers. It\u2019s the first of three matchups for the franchises this season, and it\u2019s also Heat guard <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=victor+oladipo\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=victor+oladipo\" target=\"_blank\">Victor <\/a>Oladipo\u2019s first run at Gainbridge Fieldhouse since being traded from the Pacers in 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 10-year veteran had a breakthrough in Indiana when he joined in 2017, where he earned All-NBA and All-Defensive Team honors and the Most Improved Player Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Victor Oladipo back in Indy <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F4v9CX5A0M\">pic.twitter.com\/F4v9CX5A0M<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ScottAgness\/status\/1602339144491044864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 12, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Injuries stopped that momentum and put a pause on Oladipo achieving a higher level of stardom, but Oladipo remains hopeful of returning to his All-Star form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe way you build your character and who you are as a person is how you handle those moments. And I\u2019ve always been an optimist,\u201d Oladipo said. \u201cEven though what happened to me was catastrophic, it doesn\u2019t mean that I can\u2019t still be happy, and I can\u2019t still come back from it and be my best self.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oladipo hasn\u2019t returned to the production he would have hoped for. When he was traded from Indiana to the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=victor+oladipo\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=victor+oladipo\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Rockets<\/a>, he played a total of 20 games before being shipped again in March of 2021 to the Heat, where thus far, in three seasons, he\u2019s only played 16 games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oladipo averaged 20.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 steals in his four years as the Pacers superstar. He became a fan favorite in Indiana during his first year with the team as he led them to the fifth seed of the East while going toe-to-toe in a seven-game playoff series with <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=lebron+james\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=lebron+james\" target=\"_blank\">LeBron James<\/a> and the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=cleveland+cavaliers\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=cleveland+cavaliers\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udd0a Sound up! Welcome back, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VicOladipo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@VicOladipo<\/a> \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/95yPHz2A3G\">pic.twitter.com\/95yPHz2A3G<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiamiHEAT\/status\/1600294069296844800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 7, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Oladipo\u2019s run with the Pacers was a glimpse of true blossom and an emphasis on why he was selected second overall in his draft. Nothing can take away his moment Monday night, and Oladipo hopes the air in the building refreshes his game as the elite two-way player he once was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt definitely brings some nostalgia, you know, just walking into the building,\u201d Oladipo said. \u201cBut I\u2019m focused on the good energy. And I let the bad energy go a long time ago, in terms of my injury and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Miami Heat head into Indianapolis for their 28th game of the season against the Indiana Pacers. It\u2019s the first of three matchups for the franchises this season, and it\u2019s also Heat guard Victor Oladipo\u2019s first run at Gainbridge Fieldhouse since being traded from the Pacers in 2021. The 10-year veteran had a breakthrough in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":768319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62708,18],"tags":[99,64443,103,2124],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-768307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miami-heat","category-nba","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-injury-return","tag-miami-heat","tag-victor-oladipo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768307"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768328,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768307\/revisions\/768328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768307"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=768307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}