How Floyd Mayweather Motivated Victor Oladipo’s Big Night For USA Basketball

Last Thursday, the USA Basketball scrimmage ended the team’s mini-camp in Las Vegas. The vibe was basically a defense-less all-star game, which meant there were plenty of outrageous plays during the hoop fest, even though a lot of invites to the camp didn’t participate, with vestiges of Paul George’s stanchion injury still fresh in a lot of players’ minds.

With so many sitting out, players like 23-year-old Magic guard Victor Oladipo were invited to round up the squads playing Thursday night. He did not disappoint in his appearance, scoring 25 points on 10-of-20 from the field, including this move and dunk on Michael Carter-Williams.

He even did a little ‘Toine shimmy shake afterwards, which we’re sure Floyd Mayweather appreciated.

You see, Floyd and Vic struck up a friendship of sorts, while the latter was in Vegas — Floyd’s town, as it were.

As Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel details, Floyd played a big role in motivating Oladipo to reach for what turned into his superb performance.

Mayweather was sitting courtside during Thursday’s scrimmage at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, and, during a stop in play, he allegedly told ‘Dipo, “Show me something.”

After the game, it was clear Oladipo is a fan of the undefeated five-division champ.

“He’s one of the greatest athletes in the world, if not the greatest.” Oladipo said. “He told me he was coming to the game today. When I first got out there, he was just kind of egging me on and getting me going and stuff. And it worked.”

Hopefully someone close to Oladipo informs him that Mayweather is a pretty awful human being outside of the ring. If Oladipo needs someone to act as a guide of sorts to professional sporting dominance, here’s our suggestion.

(Orlando Sentinel)

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