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By John DentonNov. 4, 2014
CHICAGO – If there’s any standout player in the NBA who can relate to the hard-luck plight of Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo these days it’s Derrick Rose, the former MVP who missed most of the past two seasons because of injuries and missed Tuesday’s game with not one, but two sprained ankles.
Rose, who has twice torn ligaments in his knee, knows a thing or two about having a stellar career interrupted by injuries. As Rose asked rhetorically on Tuesday morning, ``Who sprains both ankles on the same play?’’ Those injuries caused him to miss Tuesday’s game against the Magic.
Oladipo, the runner-up in last year’s Rookie of the Year voting, has yet to play this season for the Magic after spraining the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and fracturing a bone beneath his right eye. Oladipo injured his knee on the fourth day of training camp when he landed awkwardly on a hard drive to the rim. Then, just as he was about to return from the knee injury and play in the final preseason game just days before the regular-season opener, Oladipo was hit in the face by an accidental elbow for a teammate during a scrimmage.
Oladipo’s return to the floor will depend on how he responds to treatment, and he almost assuredly will have to wear a protective mask when he does play again. He sat on the bench with his teammates in Orlando last week, but he is still not allowed to travel because of his lingering swelling and the affects of pressurized cabins on airplanes.
Rose became familiar with Oladipo’s game over the summer when he was on USA Basketball’s National Team and the Magic guard played for the Select Team. Unprompted, Rose called Oladipo the surprise player of that week-long camp, saying he didn’t know Oladipo had such a wide-array of talents on both ends of the floor.
``I love how he plays and he plays with so much confidence. I’m already a big fan of his. I love how he takes the game so serious,’’ Rose said in July. ``He’s such a talent with his size, what he can do on the floor and how he reads defenses, especially defensively. He’s a big-time talent.’’
Rose was asked on Tuesday what advice he would have for Oladipo as he tries to battle through injuries and get back on the floor and the Bulls guard preached patience for the 22-year-old Oladipo.
``I would just tell him to have faith and be patient. He’s young and he’s very good as everybody knows,’’ Rose said of Oladipo. ``He’s going to have a lot of basketball to play, so he just has to take it slow and let everything heal. Then, when he gets back out there he’ll be back out there (fully) and he can play as hard as he can.’’
COLLEGE MEMORIES: Sometimes it’s not enough for a player to simply go through practice if he wants to fully maximize his talents and reach the NBA. Such was the case for former teammates Nikola Vucevic and Taj Gibson, who played together at USC five years ago.
After some prodding by then-Trojans coach Tim Floyd, Vucevic and Gibson would regularly stay after practice and wage one-on-one battles on a daily basis. Both claim that facing the other sharpened their skills and stoked their competitive fires and helped prepare them for life in the NBA.
Gibson, now a standout power forward for the Bulls, marvels at the metamorphosis of Vucevic, Orlando’s standout center. During his two seasons at USC, Vucevic was a skinny 7-footer who very much preferred shooting face-up jumpers to playing physical basketball in the low post. Now, however, Vucevic has bulked up to 250 pounds and he has become a solid post player with his array of powerful moves.
``When Vooch first got to USC he was more of a jump-shooter, but Coach Floyd made us go at it every day after practice so that both of us could get stronger,’’ Gibson remembered. ``Nik was even like a 3-point shooter in college, but he is way, way better now. He’s always been one of those guys with a strong work ethic. He worked hard in college because he always felt like he was underestimated and over the years he just kept improving every year. Now, you see his confidence is through the roof and it’s just a testament to how hard he’s worked.’’
Gibson said he and Vucevic never miss a chance to talk trash or cut up with one another when playing against one another. They also like to reminisce about their rise to the NBA. Said Gibson: ``We laugh out there all of the time. And when I talk to Coach Floyd he’s in awe of us (for making it to the NBA). Coach Floyd always said that (Vucevic) was a special kid and it’s nice to see how far he’s gotten.’’
HAPPY HOMECOMING: When the Magic decided not to retain E’Twaun Moore over the summer, the combo guard jumped at the chance to sign with the Bulls because of the proximity to his home of East Chicago, Ill.
Moore averaged 7.8 points in 2012-13 and 6.3 points in 2013-14 during his two seasons with the Magic. But Orlando drafted Elfrid Payton and Oladipo in the past two drafts and signed veteran shooting guard Ben Gordon in free agency, making Moore expendable.
Moore grew up about 40 minutes away from the United Center, and playing for the Bulls allows him to spend lots of time with his family. Moore, who survived a tough neighborhood upbringing as a child, was able to build a dream house for his parents last year in suburban East Chicago.
``I grew up watching the Bulls and the best player who ever played the game in (Michael) Jordan, so it’s every kid’s dream from this area to play for the Bulls,’’ said Moore, who played only sparingly in Chicago’s first three games. ``I always look at the scores and see how (the Magic) are doing and I still talk to some of the guys (such as Mo Harkless and Kyle O’Quinn).’’
ETC: Both Orlando (Kyle O’Quinn) and Chicago (Joakim Noah) were without key big men on Tuesday night. O’Quinn, a starter for the final 19 games last season and in the season-opener, has missed three past three games after spraining his ankle in New Orleans. Noah missed the game with flu-like conditions. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said that losing O’Quinn – a versatile big man capable of playing both center and power forward – has been a blow to his team. ``He was a guy who was in our rotation and played both positions for us. And you take this scenario where we’re playing a back-to-back and against good bigs, we need him and we’ll definitely miss him,’’ Vaughn said. … Vucevic had dinner in Chicago on Monday night with Bulls’ rookie forward Nikola Mirotic, a fellow native of Montenegro. The two played against one another for several years as teenagers while living in Montenegro and remained friends while Vucevic played professionally in the NBA and Mirotic was in the Spanish League. … Orlando guard Ben Gordon, who had the best years of his NBA career with the Bulls from 2004-09, said he’s in a situation now that reminds him of his playing days with the Bulls. He is delighted with the role that Vaughn has given him and he likes having the freedom to be a scorer off the bench. Said Gordon: ``It’s been great being able to come in and have an impact on the younger guys and try to develop the culture in the right direction. I’m trying to show them what it is to work hard every day and most importantly I’m being able to play impactful minutes for us. Obviously we’ve gotten off to a rocky start, but I think this team will be fine as long as we continue to work and learn from our mistakes. It’s a process with a lot of young players and we’ll take our bumps along the way, but I’m happy to be here with these guys because they work and they are hungry.’’ … Orlando completes its first back-to-back set of games of the season on Wednesday night in Philadelphia against the 76ers. The Magic are scheduled to have 17 back-to-backs this season.