VICTOR OLADIPO
MAKING MAGIC
IN
ORLANDO
ALL-MET ELITE
DEMATHA HS.
HYATTSVILLE MD.
SOURCE: ESPN.com
WRITTEN By: Israel Gutierrez
"For me to be where I came from, I'm not supposed to be here. And
with all the guys I used to hang around with? I was not supposed to be the
first one."
Oladipo grew up in Upper Marlboro, Md., a part of Prince George's
County, which is rich with basketball talent (the current crop of NBA players
from that county include Durant, Ty Lawson, Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Jarrett
Jack, Sam Young and a handful more).
Oladipo was mostly unaware of the depth and quality of talent in his
area, because his father didn't let any of his children outside the house very
often. Part of it was his strict nature, and part of it was because the family
didn't live in the safest of neighborhoods (the family moved to a more rural
section of town after the home's front door was knocked down while they watched
television).
"It's my love for the game that made me do what I do. I pushed
myself.
"Basketball was kind of like my brother. It was something I could
go do and just be myself."
At St. Jerome Academy, a private elementary and middle school about 45
minutes away from his home, Oladipo played on B teams until sixth grade. He
played mostly power forward and center because of his height and was known more
as the "hustle guy."
By the time Oladipo had to choose a high school to attend, he had no
idea where he'd go. His father kept asking him, but it wasn't until a friend's
dad took him to a game at DeMatha, a Catholic high school featuring a
tradition-rich basketball team, that Oladipo finally answered.
"I kind of fell in love with them there," he said.
When it came time to try out for the freshman team, Oladipo was one of
about a hundred students trying to get the attention of coaches.
"I stood out, one, because I wanted to play defense and, two,
because of how athletic I was," he said, though he didn't consider that
the start of a memorable career. "I didn't really go crazy or anything. I
was happy, but for some reason I wasn't really joyful or anything like
that."
Perhaps it was because his friends, like Quinn Cook (now at Duke),
Bryon Allen (George Mason) and Jerian Grant (Notre Dame) were better than him.
Perhaps it was because the reception at home would be lukewarm at best
-- at least from his dad. DeMatha coaches saw something in Oladipo, so head
coach Mike Jones referred Oladipo to an AAU team then named Triple Threat (it's
now Team Takeover).
That's where Oladipo met Price, who coached the ninth-grade team.
"Upon meeting him, he just became one of my favorites, and it
actually didn't have anything to do with basketball," Price said.
"One of the hardest things to find is a guy that's willing to listen and
hang his hat on everything you give him. And he was that kid.
"We had to do a lot of mentally grooming him, making him
understand that he is good, because he had no clue."
How could he know? On the freshman team he was essentially just
another guy. At home he got no feedback, his father constantly telling his
children to "face their books." He couldn't compare himself with his
friends, who had no such crisis of confidence.
In Price, Oladipo discovered someone who wanted to unearth something
special in him. So the lanky kid became a sponge. A well-mannered, intelligent,
eager sponge -- with an especially strict dad. This AAU thing required more
time away from his books, more time away from his home, more time committed to
a "hobby."
In fact, Oladpio didn't even think varsity basketball was in his near
future.
"He's on our team, he's an integral part of our team, he's
feeling good about himself, so I started asking him if he's gonna play varsity
next year," Price said. "His first response was, 'Huh?' "I said,
'What do you mean, "Huh?"'
"And I can still remember his quote to this day: 'Varsity?
They're good.'"
Price's immediate retort was, "So what are you?"
Oladipo hadn't given varsity nearly as much thought as you'd expect
from someone who had NBA dreams.
Price, who Oladipo had grown attached to, offered a blunt dose of
reality: Make varsity, or this whole experience ends.
It wasn't so much an ultimatum as it was setting an alarm clock for
Oladipo.
"One day I just stopped and I said, 'Listen, I want you to know
something,'" Price said. "'Do you enjoy playing for us? Do you like
sleeping over at my house? Do you consider us like a family? Well lemme just
tell you something. There's no way in hell that we're going to have a 10th grader
that's playing JV on our roster. So you got to find a way to make
varsity.'"
That meant Oladipo would have to attend 6 a.m. workouts the summer
after his freshman year. It was no easy task, given that DeMatha was nearly an
hour from home.
Not only did he show up, but he was so energetic in the workouts that
DeMatha coach Mike Jones called Oladipo's AAU coaches to ask how they motivated
him.
Oladipo kept showing up, even after he suffered a fracture in his foot
during AAU season and couldn't actually participate.
Jones kept telling Oladipo he didn't have to, but Oladipo kept showing
up, offering to help in any way he could, even by sweeping the floors.
Oladipo's response: "I'm OK, Coach Mike. I just don't want y'all
to forget about me."
"That's who the kid was," Price said. "How could you
not fall in love with a kid who has that determination? He was raised great --
I mean, we can't take any credit for how he was raised -- and he's just waiting
to get molded."
That experience helped Oladipo make varsity, though he wasn't a
starter until his senior season. And while his team won the city title his
junior year, and he was averaging a double-double and playing relentless
defense nightly, Oladipo wasn't being widely recruited.
FULL ARTICLE LINK
.jpg)