Victor Oladipo Visits School, Wants to Found Hoops Camp for Hearing Impaired
Victor Oladipo is about as solid an ambassador of the game of basketball as can be found today.
The Orlando Magic guard has a special talent for winning over a crowd, and his journey from 3-star prospect to second overall pick in the NBA draft will inspire anyone who’s ever faced a mountain he's not sure he can climb.
But it was Oladipo’s relationship with his older sister, Kendra, that made him especially equipped for his speaking engagement at a Washington, D.C.-area school on Wednesday.
Clinton Yates of the Washington Post reported that Oladipo stopped by Model Secondary School for the Deaf to talk to students about his life and childhood with Kendra, who became deaf in the second grade and is now a substitute teacher at MSSD.
He spoke for a half-hour, saying his sister is one of the biggest influences in his life and that he plans to found a youth basketball camp for the hearing impaired.
"That brought all of us to our feet," said Glenn Lockhart, communications director for the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University, per Yates. "He was as excited to be here as our students were to have him visit. ... It was wonderful to know that he called his deaf sister Kendra one of the biggest influences on his life."
Oladipo also took questions from the students, notably one about what it was like to dunk on LeBron James. The guard addressed it respectfully.
"Honestly, I didn’t even know it was him. I was focused on the rim," Oladipo said.
Classic Vic: respectful about even the most disrespectful of dunks.
