Instagram/@vicoladipo Miami Heat star Victor Oladipo is returning for the 2021-22 NBA season
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That’s kind of where Miami Heat fans are when it comes to the return of injured guard Victor Oladipo.
The two-time All-Star suited up in just four games for the Heat last season before undergoing season-ending knee surgery, the same procedure he underwent in 2019 for a ruptured right quadriceps tendon. Cautious optimism has been the buzz word from Pat Riley and company this offseason.
Now there is a report that Oladipo could be ready to return in December. Good news considering the Heat open the regular season on Nov. 21. Greg Sylvander of Five Reasons Sports Network threw out an “arbitrary date” of Dec. 25 for Oladipo’s comeback. He cited sources saying that the 29-year-old has been rehabbing hard and appears “ahead of schedule.”
“Sources close to Oladipo’s process throughout summer have maintained that he’s ahead of schedule and that there is an expectation surrounding him that he could be hooping by December,” Sylvander said, via Five on the Floor podcast. “That’s a completely different timeline than I had been conceptualizing as somebody following this team. I was looking at more like the All-Star break.”
Victor Oladipo will return to the Miami Heat.
Oladipo was thought to be the answer to Miami’s backcourt woes when they acquired him at last year’s trade deadline but it never worked out that way. Still, they brought him back on a team-friendly one-year deal valued at $2.4 million (via Spotrac). He saw action in 33 total games in 2020 during stints with the Pacers, Rockets, Heat. He hasn’t played in more than 36 games since the 2017-18 season.
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Oladipo Looking for Romance, Girlfriend?
Sometimes the smallest, most innocent comments on social media make headlines. For Oladipo, it was a simple tweet where he wrote: “Low key tired of being single.”
Heat Twitter pounced on it immediately and Oladipo responded to a Heat Nation graphic showing him alone at a restaurant asking for a “Table for 1.” Was it harmless banter? Or did it cross the line? You be the judge.
Oladipo went on to post two subsequent messages, one on Instagram saying: “Look in the mirror if you wanna look at some things on the bright side.” And another on Twitter saying: “I remember when the smallest things would bother me. Now I’m immune to it.”
Laugh 😂
Chris Bosh, Ultimate Big 3 Role Player
When Chris Bosh joined forces with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in 2010 to form the NBA’s first super-team, he had to deflate his ego quite a bit. Turns out, the future Hall of Famer never really had one. Bosh, an 11-time All-Star, had always been an unselfish superstar going back to his high school days.
Bosh didn’t think twice about dishing the ball to Ray Allen for a series-saving triple in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals. The Heat would go on to win that series to claim their second straight world championship. Bosh’s ego was checked at the door.
“To me, with basketball, those were the easy decisions that I had to make. Life was tough,” Bosh told NBA.com about holding back his ego. “But when it came to basketball and preparing, I just knew it. I knew even if it was just finding where to start learning, I just knew where to go. I always followed my gut, followed my instinct, and thank goodness it paid off.”
Bosh will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 11 in Springfield, Mass. There are 16 total honorees in the Class of 2021 including Bosh, Paul Pierce, Chris Webber, Ben Wallace.