Their careers become more intertwined every year. They have been traded together twice, their careers have both taken off with the Pacers and now they share NBA All-Star status.
But it's what lies ahead for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo that's the really intriguing part of their story.
The announcement of Sabonis' selection to the Eastern Conference team on Thursday gave him something else in common with Oladipo, who until now had been the only Pacer to have filled out an All-Star uniform. It made Sabonis happy, of course, but seemed to thrill Oladipo as well.
"I think I'm more excited than he is," Oladipo said following Friday's practice at St. Vincent Center. "We've kind of been travel buddies on this tour. This is big for both of us. We both knew we could play at this level."
By this level, he means an All-Star level. Getting there was just a matter of opportunity, backed by a lot of hard work.
Oladipo got there in his first season with the Pacers as their leading scorer, best defender, and deadliest clutch shooter since Reggie Miller. Escaping Russell Westbrook's enormous shadow helped, too. Now Sabonis has joined him after moving into the starting lineup after playing two seasons off the bench. His per-minute scoring average is down a bit from last season, as are his field goal and 3-point shooting percentages but playing nearly 10 more minutes per game has made his contributions blatantly more obvious to the world.
"They gave me the opportunity to have a bigger role this year and I tried to take advantage of it," Sabonis said.
Sabonis is on the last year of his rookie contract but signed a lucrative four-year extension last fall. The security of that deal has not softened his approach, however.
"That's never been my mindset," he said. "I always want more. I always want to get better. I'm still real young, 23; my mindset is to go out and get better every day, every summer."
Pacers coach Nate McMillan reached out to some fellow conference coaches to encourage them to cast a vote for Sabonis as an All-Star reserve but discovered he didn't need much of a sales pitch. The Pacers' record, a surprise to some, helped his cause. Of course, his play has been a major part of the reason for the record.
"The team has done a great job of contributing to him making the All-Star team," McMillan said. "I talked to some coaches. For them it was a no-brainer. They felt the team had earned the right to have someone representing in the all-star game."
Oladipo likely would have represented the Pacers as well had he been able to play most of the season to this point. He returned with familiar flair on Wednesday by hitting a 28-foot 3-pointer that forced overtime and will continue to play off the bench for no more than 24 minutes in all but one of the seven remaining games before the All-Star break. He'll sit out one of the games in the back-to-back set.
Now that he's back, and now that the Pacers have two All-Stars and a couple of other players approaching that status, imaginations can be forgiven for running a little wild. If Oladipo can continue his rehabilitation successfully and then blend into the intended starting lineup that has yet to play together, the Pacers have the best opportunity of any team in the East to improve their place in the standings. They are now fifth, 11/2½ games back of third and fourth place and three games back of second.
"We just have to continue to grow," Oladipo said. "Once we start clicking at a high level it's going to be special."
That's what Oladipo had in mind on that July day in 2017. He had just stepped off an airplane at the airport in Atlanta, a stopover on his way from Oklahoma City to his home in Orlando, when he learned he and Sabonis had been swapped to the Pacers. Barely more than a year earlier they had been traded together from Orlando to OKC on the night of the draft.
It could have been disheartening, being traded twice in 13 months, particularly when the second deal was made under the duress of George's trade demand. Oladipo, however, identified the silver lining when he called Sabonis at his hotel room in Orlando, where the Thunder summer league team was playing.
"I said, 'Man, look, if we go (to the Pacers) and we change it around they're going to embrace us like nothing you've ever seen before," Oladipo recalled. "I guess I knew what I was talking about a little bit, huh?
"It's crazy to see how far we've both come."
Oladipo came from being a second overall pick who was somewhat of a disappointment in Orlando, averaging 16 points in his third season while playing 20 of his 72 games off the bench. He started the next season in Oklahoma City, but garnered no special notice while averaging 15.9 points.
Sabonis came from being the 11th overall pick in the draft who averaged just 5.9 points as a rookie. He came off the bench in 17 of his final 19 games that season and was a non-factor in the Thunder's first-round loss to Houston. He played a combined six minutes in the first two games of the series and not at all in the final three.
Not many Thunder fans would have believed then he would ever be an All-Star.
"He's more comfortable now," said Oladipo, his teammate that season. "He's used to the game, he knows where his strengths are, he's smart.
"The one thing you can't teach, Domas just wants to play. He wants to play, and he wants to win. He doesn't like coming out of the games, he doesn't like sitting out … he wants to play. I really don't know another human being like that other than myself. It's awesome to be around him. He's like my long-lost little brother."
Photo Credit: NBAE/Getty Images
Oladipo said he recovered well from his season debut on Wednesday — after a day off on Thursday.
Oladipo said he was physically and emotionally exhausted after the game against Chicago. He had not slept well in the days leading up to it and the furor surrounding his return, highlighted by his magical moment, left him under the weather for a day.
Oladipo is limited to 24 minutes per game by the Pacers' training staff. He played 20 minutes and 57 seconds against the Bulls and could have returned for part of the overtime but was shut down by the trainers.
McMillan had taken note of his minutes played and planned to bring him back for the final two or three minutes of overtime but was denied permission.
"I was going to use him those last three minutes, but they basically said he's done," McMillan said. "That's kind of what we're going to be dealing with. If there's a point we feel he's had enough, they're going to pull him. I don't think I'll be allowed to go over the 24 minutes."
Oladipo was up for returning but didn't protest his banishment.
"I don't think my body was ready for an overtime game yet," he said. "They didn't want to take any risks. Which I understand. At the end of the day, it's been a year. My first game back, overtime game, it probably wouldn't have been for my body. This is for something bigger."
McConnell Apologizes for Technical
T.J. McConnell was able to joke about his technical foul in Wednesday's game following Friday's practice, but he wasn't feeling to happy with it at the time.
McConnell was called for a charging foul by referee Evan Scott with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter. He was enraged, running to Scott and screaming in his face to earn the technical.
"I certainly got my money's worth," he said Friday. "I blacked out, kind of."
It was potentially costly to the Pacers. The Bulls scored off the technical free throw and then got a 3-pointer to move their lead from two to six points. Their lead peaked at seven before the Pacers fought back to force overtime.
McConnell apologized to Scott during the next timeout and acknowledged part of his anger stemmed from disappointment over his own play in the game.
"I told him what I thought about the play, told him it's never personal," he said. "I would never attack someone as a man and their character. It was heat of the moment.
"I could have played better. As a point guard and one of the leaders I have to be better."
The NBA fines players $2,000 for each of their first five technical fouls.
"I cost my wife a new couch that she wanted," McConnell joked. "I'm not her favorite player right now."
Have a question for Mark? Want it to be on Pacers.com? Email him at askmontieth@gmail.com and you could be featured in his next mailbag.
Mark Montieth's book on the formation and groundbreaking seasons of the Pacers, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," is available in bookstores throughout Indiana and on Amazon.com.
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.
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