Kehinde Babatunde Victor Oladipo is a professional basketball player who plays as a shooting guard for the Indiana Pacers. He was born on May 4, 1992, in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, to his parents – Joan Amanze Oladipo (mother) and Christopher Oladipo (father). He spent the entirety of this childhood at Upper Marlboro, Maryland alongside his three sisters – Kristine, Kendra, and Victoria. As regards his nationality, he is an American of black ethnicity. He also possesses Nigerian citizenship given the fact that both his parents are originally from Nigeria.
It’s hard to trace the age he developed an interest in basketball, but analytical speaking, it must have been at a tender age because, during his days as a senior student of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, he was known to average an impressive 11.09 points, 3.6 blocks and 10.3 rebounds per game.
Upon the completion of his high school education, he attended Indiana University despite receiving several basketball scholarship offers from renowned colleges like Xavier University and Notre Dame. He made his college basketball debut on December 27, 2010, against Penn State with an impressive 14 points, 3 steals, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists, despite playing for 23 minutes only. Oladipo continued his blistering form up till his junior year and was rewarded with double honors as the Sporting News Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year, as well as National Co-Defensive Player of the Year for his outstanding performance in the 2012/2013 season.
The 9th of July 2013 marked the start of Oladipo’s professional basketball career as he penned his signature to a rookie contract with Orlando Magic, right after placing second in the 2013 NBA overall draft. As expected, he got on to a fine start with the team, recording an unbelievably high assist, points and rebound for a rookie. The next season, he scored a career-high 45 points against Cleveland Cavaliers thereby becoming the first Magic player to record over 40 points since Aaron Afflalo.
In June 2016, he was traded in a swap deal to Oklahoma City Thunder but was sidelined for most of the season as a result of an injury. On July 6, 2017, he was traded again, this time to Indiana Pacers. Since joining the Pacers, he has experienced significant improvement in his overall gameplay - an NBA Most Improved Player Award in 2018 sure gives more weight to this claim.
