The Indiana Pacers have been one of the NBA’s best teams this season, following up last year’s surprising campaign with an even better one through half of the 2018-19 season.
A big reason for that success has been the emergence of Victor Oladipo as an All-Star in Indiana, and the guard was having another spectacular season until Wednesday night against the Raptors, when he was stretchered off the court with a right knee injury. The injury was simply deemed “serious” in the immediate, with an MRI set for Thursday morning, but the expectation was that it would be a season ender.
NBA stars offered their support for Oladipo and sent prayers and well wishes for his recovery, and on Thursday the worst was confirmed by the MRI. Oladipo ruptured his quad tendon in his right knee and will have surgery on it that will indeed end his season.
OFFICIAL: Victor Oladipo has a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee. He will undergo surgery at a date to be determined and will be out for the season. https://t.co/bAZIgJfhVn pic.twitter.com/GbbSi6wzl3
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) January 24, 2019
The hope is obviously that he’ll be able to rehab and return in due time to be back at the level he was playing at the past season and a half. For the Pacers as a team, they now have to go the rest of the year without their star guard and lean on their young bigs in Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner for even more of the scoring load, along with veterans in the backcourt to pick up the slack left by Oladipo’s absence.
