Victor Oladipo is African Player of the Week

When the Indiana Pacers traded All-Star small forward Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Nigerian-American guard Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, it initially seemed like a one-sided deal.
However, the first half of this season has shown that the Pacers got as much out of the deal as the franchise from Oklahoma did, and one of the reasons for this is Oladipo, who also happens to be our top African player this week.
The 4-foot-4 guard from Indianapolis leads his franchise in points (24.4), steals (two) and minutes per game (34.5). He is also second in assists and blocks per game.
Oladipo is shooting 48.7 percent from the field, 38.3 from 3-point range, and 80.6 from the free-throw line.
Over the last seven days he played in two of Indiana’s three games and had double-digit scores in both matchups. On Friday, he notched a 35-point, 10-rebound double-double against the Boston Celtics and Sunday night had a game-leading 30 points against the New York Knicks with eight rebounds and nine assists.
Our first honorable mention this week goes to an African player who continues to do freaky things on the hardwood. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is having yet another breakout season and stacking up his stat sheet well.
The 6-foot-11 Nigerian-Greek is playing with MVP ambitions and leads Milwaukee with points (27.9), rebounds (10.2), assists (4.7) and minutes (37) per game average. He is also second in steals and blocks.
Antetokounmpo is shooting 53.9 percent from the field, 29.9 from behind the arc and 75.8 from the charity stripe.
He appeared in all of the Bucks’ games over the past week and scored in double digits in all of them, with his top performance coming in the Milwaukee’s 111-104 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday with 32 points, five rebounds and five assists on 14-of-24 shooting.
Our second mention goes to the Orlando Magic’s Algerian-French guard Evan Fournier, one of their main sharpshooters.
He leads the Magic in free-throws with an 87.6 percent average, and is second with minutes, 3-point percentage and points per game average.
Fournier is averaging 18 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, while shooting 46.4 percent from the field, 39.1 from 3-point range, and 87.7 from the field.
Over the last seven days Fournier played in all four of the Magic’s games and scored double-digit points in all of them. His most notable performance came in Orlando’s matchup with the Chicago Bulls Tuesday night in which he had 22 points, three rebounds and five assists.
If you have any comments and suggestions regarding our selections this week, tweet us on @kwesesports with your thoughts.