Victor Oladipo’s been here before — plenty of times — that’s what makes this worse.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that Oladipo tore his left patellar tendon during Saturday night’s Miami Heat win over the Milwaukee Bucks, which put the No. 8 seed up 2-1 in the series.
The former two-time All-Star was enjoying an impactful game for the Heat when he injured his knee during the fourth quarter of a 112-88 stomping of the No. 1 seed Bucks in Miami.
Following a drive with 3:56 left, Oladipo landed hard and instantly grabbed his left knee — he knew something was wrong.
A stretcher was brought out, but Oladipo was able to walk to the locker room with some help.
Oladipo had finished the game with eight points on an efficient 4-for-6 shooting, also recording two steals and a block.
The latest setback is Oladipo’s latest lack of luck regarding injuries throughout his NBA career, which will now close its 10th season on this note.
Upon entering the league as the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2013, the Indiana University alum bounced around from the Orlando Magic to Oklahoma City Thunder to the Indiana Pacers, who landed him (and Domantas Sabonis) in exchange for Paul George in the summer of 2017.
Oladipo then became an All-Star for the first time, the 2017-18 Most Improved Player in the league, and memorably helped push LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers to a seven-game, first-round series.
He made a second All-Star team the following season, but was replaced by then Brooklyn Net D’Angelo Russell after suffering a ruptured quad tendon in January 2019.
In 2020-21, where he was moved from Indiana to the Houston Rockets as part of the James Harden-Nets deal, he was later acquired by the Heat at the trade deadline but tore his right quad tendon after four games on his new team, returning last March, shortly before the playoffs.
Oladipo also missed the first 24 games of this 2022-23 season with left knee tendinosis, the same one he injured on Saturday evening.
Oladipo, who turns 31 in May, will now likely opt into a $9.45 million player option this summer.
He averaged 10.7 points, 3.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game during 42 regular season contests, of which he logged 26.3 minutes per outing, including two starts.