Insider: Victor Oladipo seizes control of career off court to capitalize on new stardom

Show Caption Hide Caption Insider - Oladipo trains in Miami Insider J. Michael disusses Pacers' Victor Oladipo training in Miami.

MIAMI – Victor Oladipo is under strobe lights on a basketball court momentarily doubling as a studio, smiling, dribbling and posing with a basketball in his Embellish denims and Davinci high tops for about 20 minutes.

Then he goes back to what he truly is at his core — a basketball player — though that's just one of many layers.

This snapshot represents the different sides of Oladipo, who naturally prefers to be under the radar but yearns to capitalize on his growing NBA stardom off the court. He insists he hasn't changed since being named the 2017-18 Most Improved Player, making the All-Defensive Team and leading the Pacers to 48 wins in a surprising season that led to his first All-Star selection.

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He aims to be a brand name. Like his denims. Like his sneakers.

“I push the envelope. I play nothing safe now," Oladipo says. “I’m the guy if we’re down two, I’m pulling up for three. I work too hard to not push the envelope. I used to be conservative but that really didn’t get me anywhere.”

He plans to take that envelope-pushing mentality beyond the court. Oladipo doesn't want to be typecast. He's working on a studio album that may be completed before the season. He's working on his image to make himself more attractive to Madison Avenue. The No. 1 option for the Pacers is calling his own shots now.

“I decided to take control on and off the court and really make decisions that are best for me instead of relying on other people," Oladipo says. "It’s about growth, getting a little wiser, a gray hair here or there. I’m trying to grow up.”

The first step toward organizing a team to get Oladipo to the next level on the court gained traction last summer. His manager, Jay Henderson, who has been with him since 2014 when Oladipo played for the Orlando Magic, had to figure out the right chemistry. Trainers Al Watson, Bryce Stanhope and Micah Lancaster were brought on board last summer to streamline Oladipo's physique and re-educate his feet in what became an All-Star season.

His expectation isn't to take a single step forward in 2018-19 but to be running when the season starts Oct. 17.

TRANSFORMATION

Renting gyms in Miami is a nightmare — and costly. Besides, a player of Oladipo’s caliber and means, entering the second year of a four-year, $85 million contract, shouldn't have to tailor his schedule around someone else's availability.

He's now part-owner of a strip-mall location in a working-class neighborhood in Miami. Victor Oladipo's Skills Lab, like Oladipo, is not a finished product. The true value rests in its ceiling.

Oladipo recently hired a public relations agent. He fired his basketball agent at Creative Artists Agency and hired talent agency WME to boost his profile .

“Some things just don’t work out, aren’t necessarily a great fit. I just felt like I needed time off from that aspect of the business," Oladipo says. "I’ll worry about that stuff later. It’s a sign I’m going in a different direction."

A place such as Miami has its share of distractions, even for a level-headed 26-year-old.

Walk out the front door and listen closely and the hips will involuntarily engage with the sounds of Celia Cruz, the legendary La Reina de la Salsa.

There are parallels between Oladipo's offseason focus and salsa dancing. Both are about precision timing and footwork. How could any normal person resist?

Oladipo does because he isn’t normal. He carries around a one-gallon jug of water. To show solidarity in vision, Henderson does the same. They'll walk into a restaurant with one in tow and continually sip from it.

Oladipo doesn’t do sweets or carbohydrates, either, a practice that began when he hunkered down one year ago to prepare for his first season with the Pacers. That commitment to his diet helped get him to this point.

When Oladipo lifts weights, Henderson is there with his own trainer participating. The same goes for hot yoga sessions.

When Oladipo is on the court training with Watson and Stanhope, Henderson is fielding a flood of business calls, kneeling with a towel to wipe the wet spots and applauding every make and miss. There's no sitting or snacking on a Cubano while the sausage is being made in front of him.

They've created this culture all on their own and believe the next phase — filled with endorsements and off-the-court opportunities — awaits.

Yes, basketball is a playground game, but professional basketball is a billion-dollar industry.

This is business.

ATTACKING WEAKNESSES

When gearing up for the next 90 minutes, Oladipo works up a sweat with '90s new jack swing and R&B with love songs sprinkled in from Ralph Tresvant and Shai. At times, if feels like a throwback to Melvin Lindsey's Quiet Storm, a late-night radio format born in Oladipo's hometown of Washington, D.C.

Oladipo doubles over in laughter about the unusual motivation technique, a switch from the indecipherable mumble rap that tends to be the norm for workouts.

“It might sound crazy but it simulates a situation that you have to find your own energy,” Oladipo says. “Sometimes you’re in arenas where it might be dead in there, not as much excitement as you want to be. Sometimes you got to find your own energy. It doesn’t mean the song is going to bring you energy."

Then the self-described "alto-ish" singer, who jokingly insists he can extend to soprano with the neo soul of Maxwell, cuts to the chase about the rest of his reasoning: "Sometimes I do it because I’m just tired of hearing rap music.”

Plus, it's a Monday. It's better to ease into the grind.

It's the job of Watson (A Game Training) and Lawrence and Stanhope (I'm Possible Training) to tire him out in other ways. They're attacking Oladipo's weaknesses and adding to his repertoire.

Watson focuses on situational basketball such as splitting traps, mid-postups and ball-handling. Stanhope is all about the footwork in confined spaces to maximize efficiency, ball-handling and finishing techniques. It's a mind-boggling array of counter moves and counters of the counter moves. Stanhope estimates there are more than 600 combinations of footwork. Oladipo goes from mid-range pullups to head fakes with reverse pivots that produce fading jumpers. He can mix in a high head fake instead or add a forward pivot after the reverse pivot. That keeps the defender guessing.

While it has been common for bigs to visit with master footwork specialist Hakeem Olajuwon to learn in the offseason, Kobe Bryant ushered in this practice for perimeter players. Creating space and separation, deception with few or no dribbles, is where Bryant excelled even in advanced age and declining athleticism. That's where the system taught by Stanhope and Lawrence is so valuable.

"With Vic being in this program for two years we don't focus on one individual thing. We try to get in as much as we possibly can," says Stanhope, who has worked with Karl-Anthony Towns, a big for the Minnesota Timberwolves with superior footwork. "Most people try to focus on adding just one thing during the summer but with how many skills we have on the checklist, that would be hard. We can literally add one to two to three different skills every session. He’s up to 400-500 in our checklist."

There aren't many repeat workouts because procedural memory takes over, similar to how people learn how to ride a bike. After 15 minutes or so, they can ride that bike 15 years later because of it. That's the approach with Oladipo and every other client.

Watson, like Henderson, is attached at the hip to Oladipo. Wherever Oladipo is during the season or afterward, he follows. Watson joined him in Santa Monica, Calif., for the 2018 NBA Awards show.

The process of getting better never stops. Watson played professionally overseas for nine years and acquired more training certificates than he can recall. In between his games in Estonia, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Austria, there was time for Watson to plan for life after basketball. It's still basketball.

Watson changes where the traps come from with Oladipo, forcing him to snake his dribble when the double-team occurs up high and pull up when the big steps up to help from the low post and cut off the driving lane. Oladipo saw those coverages using LeBron James and Tristan Thompson as the second defender a lot in a first-round series with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who eliminated the Pacers in seven games.

“Last year we started doing a lot of tightening up his ball-handling skills. This year we took it to another level because I watch a lot of film on him,” Watson says. “In the fourth quarter, he’s like the point guard. Wanted to focus on a lot of combination moves, working on traps. It’s no secret now. They’re going to be double-teaming him.

"You look at the great players, Kobe, they had to do a little bit of everything. His shot from the perimeter may be off so he’s got to learn, ‘Let me get myself going, get to the mid-post, get some fouls.' He’s got to be able to attack with all different facets of the game. We do a lot of sprinting, getting to your spots. Got to get open. I touch everything with in-game situation stuff."

Oladipo can go end to end with the ball and finish at the rim with authority. That’s easy.

What made him special en route to a career-high 23.1 points last season was an uncanny ability to accelerate in the open court to drive back his defender, decelerate upon that separation, elevate, stay on balance and drain the pull-up jumper. That's not easy.

Oladipo shot 46.6 percent on pull-up 3s (48 of 103). He was 36 percent on step-back 3s (9 of 25). On his regular jump shots, Oladipo shot just 34.1 percent overall (145 of 425) and 34.4 percent from 3 (104 of 302).

There's plenty of room to get better.

"It’s starting to get difficult to challenge him just because he’s so far along in our process with the skill-set stuff," Stanhope says. "He’s getting everything. We’ll throw something new at him, one rep to adjust and he’ll go. Even with just his energy in the gym it never changes. He’s one of the more remarkable players I’ve seen with his focus. It’s crazy."

When Watson notices Oladipo is lagging, he utters four words to re-energize him.

"He wants to be great. It doesn't matter where we’re at, his obligations, he wants to work out," Watson says. "Everything is scheduled. He’s not about partying. Sometimes I can see he’s kind of slow-motioning it and I'll say, ‘What would Kobe do?’ Then he’s at a whole other level.”

WINNING ROUTINE

Oladipo is most demonstrative when he talks about Henderson.

There's a perception that his manager makes all of the decisions and Oladipo’s nothing more than a yes man.

That's irks him, as it should. Nothing about Oladipo suggests he appeases.

When Oladipo was in Orlando, he was rudderless. No one showed him how to organize and take control of his career. Henderson, whom he met through mutual acquaintances, provided valuable guidance in becoming a professional.

"I didn’t have any help doing anything. I was pretty much on my own," Oladipo says. "I found him and he just helped me. He was there when pretty much no one else was. He’s knows me well."

It's difficult to argue with the results.

Rather than trying to tell Oladipo what he should do, Henderson behaves like the best of pedagogues. He asks him the right questions and takes a step back.

"He’s questioned me. Basically saying, ‘Do you believe in yourself?’ I think that’s the best thing he’s ever done for me," Oladipo says. "'Do you put in all that work to not believe in yourself? Don’t you think you’re good enough.' Stuff like that has been monumental in my growth."

While a lot of players have childhood friends or trusted confidants in Henderson's position who are closer to their age, he's 16 years older than Oladipo.

“I never tell him what to do," says Henderson, who went from managing rap artists to Orlando's AAU circuit. "I just feel like that for him to grow, I don’t want to be that person that people think that makes him make his decisions or influences his decisions. I let him make his own decisions, then I'll chime in."

When it comes to the music, Henderson takes a more assertive role. He'll bring in producers, writers and other artists from as far away as Los Angeles to help Oladipo with his album in his down time. Oladipo is rounding into a veteran in the studio, banging out a song in one session. Last year, he couldn't do that.

There's not a lot of room for hobbies as Oladipo has settled on a routine and rarely deviates. It begins in the morning with weightlifting and agility drills, with an hour of recovery. Then it's his session with Stanhope, Lawrence and Watson, icing down and an hourlong physical therapy appointment set up through the Pacers. Dinner comes next, followed by yoga. If he has any spark left, it's off to the studio.

Gone are the days when Oladipo was scattershot. He'd train back home in the D.C. area, go to Miami and then California. He worked hard but not hard enough. He was smart but didn't exactly think everything through.

If the NBA tipped today, Oladipo probably could play starter's minutes. He won't need to use training camp to get into shape.

"I’m more consistent. I’m just working on my mind as much as I do my body," Oladipo says. "I think that’s going to help me make the next jump.”

Those waters could prove choppy. What has made Oladipo unique, especially in middle America, is that he’s a budding star who comes without the trappings of one.

In pushing his brand, he runs the risk of losing that innocence. What if fans don’t want to share him? What if his image is altered for the worse with his most loyal base?

“I think about that a lot, too,” Oladipo says. “It doesn’t mean I’ve changed as a person or necessarily who I am. It’s a part of growing. If you really know me, you know I’ll never really change no matter the situation I’m in.”

He's not interested in giving the Pacers his opinion on the roster unless management asks. And no, it's not his team this year any more than it was a year ago.

"It’s the Indiana Pacers. Not the Oladipos," Oladipo says. "That’s what we preach over there."

The humble beginnings of his NBA career won't allow him to forget. He remembers being labeled a bust after being chosen No. 2 overall in 2013. Sports Illustrated opined his selection in the top five “is an indictment of this draft.” USA Today described him as a good piece for a rebuilding team “as long as he’s not expected to be its best player on offense.” Three years later the Washington Post suggested that based on advanced analytics Oladipo should've been re-drafted eighth behind Cody Zeller, Mason Plumlee, Gorgui Dieng and Kelly Olynyk.

Rather absurd to assess talent solely based on statistics no matter how intelligent they sound, isn't it? Even an untrained eye knows that conclusion is flawed.

What about this statistic: Among the 14 lottery picks in 2013, guess who is the only All-Star among them?

Hint: It's not Zeller, Plumlee, Dieng or Olynyk — all role players who are unlikely to be anything more than role players.

That's not disrespect. The truth is, most of the 450-plus in the NBA are role players to complement stars. Most players aren't stars because stars, by definition, are special.

That's where Oladipo is heading. It's just a question of how high his star rises and how brightly it shines.

"You know when someone walks in the room and there’s an aura about them? He has that light," Henderson says. "A great energy and everyone is attracted to it. All guys don’t have that."

After the Pacers fell to 19-19 with five-game losing streak, Oladipo wasn't content with average. He expected more. It wasn't necessarily his words to flip that switch, but a work ethic and unflappable belief that spoke louder even among veterans. It was that glow, difficult to describe and impossible to quantify from a distance.

That's the Oladipo brand. He never lets them see him sweat.

There's just one basketball-sized hitch.

"The next step is becoming the best player in the NBA," Henderson says. "None of this other stuff matters if he doesn’t handle himself on the court."

Follow IndyStar Pacers Insider J. Michael on Twitter @ThisIsJMichael.