Victor Oladipo: But what do you say to someone who’s feeling a little ding here, a little ding there, and they’re like, 'Hey, I don’t know if I should play'? I would tell them: don’t play. If you don’t feel comfortable, if it’s bothering you—don’t. We come from an era of Mamba Mentality—rest in peace. Mamba Mentality is: 'I tear my Achilles, I’m gonna walk off.' And sometimes we feel like when we get a bruise or a tweak, we can just say 'F it' and play through it. But in reality, you’re not giving that part of your body enough time to heal. In fact, by playing more, you’re putting more damage on it. We don’t fully understand that because we don’t really talk about it. The truth is: if you’ve got a little sprain or a little joint discomfort, and you’re not letting it heal, playing on it won’t help. Even if it doesn’t hurt right away, it doesn’t mean it’s healing properly.
Source: YouTube
More on this storyline
Victor Oladipo: All respect to everyone else in the world that's playing basketball or just living, but in America, it was different for Africans. No disrespect to African-Americans—I’m an African-American technically—but my blood, through and through, is African. There's no American descent anywhere. A lot of people don’t understand—I remember growing up when Afrobeats wasn’t played in the club or on the radio. There were no Burna Boys or Todbz over here. They weren’t doing that. In fact, we were getting called 'African booty scratchers.' We were looked at differently—maybe even still, a little, to this day. Obviously, it’s come a long way. But I say that to say: those first generations couldn’t have had it easy, because it wasn’t easy for me. How could it have been? My parents had to struggle in their own personal lives, in work, and in coping with each other. They worked hard so all four kids could go to private school. -via YouTube / March 26, 2025
Victor Oladipo: Even when I didn’t listen to it, even when I didn’t trust it, it was still leading me. It was still guiding me. And I kind of want to do this so people would listen to that spirit within themselves more—to be more in tune with it. Because for a long time, I was mute, bro. If you don’t believe me, ask around. I’ll bring people on the show, and they’ll tell you—I barely used to speak. I barely said anything. Who was I going to talk to? My parents were super paranoid. They didn’t want anything to happen to us. They understood how crazy the world was, so we couldn’t go anywhere. No sleepovers. No parties. We weren’t doing that. We were at the house, in our own little universes, in our rooms." -via YouTube / March 26, 2025
Victor Oladipo: "Best player ever. Yeah. And I would consider him that because—he’s supposed to be playing golf, bro. If you really look at him—he’s supposed to be playing golf. He’s out there 100%. And he hittin’ aay out there, bro. 100%. For real. He doing his thing—it’s... he is... he’s changed the game completely, bro. And you just—you said something so profound: I saw him. I saw him. I had to guard him. You know what I’m saying? It’s really different. And he has changed the game so drastically that guys shoot 50 threes a game now—and that’s only because of him. That’s it. -via YouTube / March 25, 2025
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Victor Oladipo doesn't agree with 'Mamba Mentality' regarding injuries
