Background and career
Lamar Joseph Odom (born November 6, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player who played for four teams during his 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and won back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010 with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was also named NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2011. In high school, Odom received national player of the year honors from Parade in 1997. He played college basketball for the University of Rhode Island, earning all-conference honors during his only season in the Atlantic 10 Conference before turning professional. The Los Angeles Clippers selected Odom with the fourth overall pick in the first round of the 1999 NBA draft. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in the following year; it was during his four seasons with the Clippers, however, that he was twice suspended for violating the league's anti-drug policy. As a restricted free agent, he then signed with the Miami Heat, where he played the 2003–04 season before being traded to the Lakers. Odom spent seven seasons with the Lakers, who traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. After the move, his career declined. He was traded back to the Clippers in 2012 and played briefly in Spain in 2014. Odom played on the United States national team, winning a bronze medal in the Olympics in 2004 and a gold medal in the FIBA World Championship (later known as the World Cup) in 2010. Odom was married to Khloé Kardashian from 2009 to 2016. During their marriage, Odom made several appearances on the reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. He and Kardashian also had their own reality series, Khloé & Lamar. In October 2015, Odom was hospitalized in a comatose state after being discovered unconscious in a Nevada brothel. He later sought treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
Odom was born in South Jamaica, Queens, to Joe Odom and Cathy Mercer. His father was a heroin addict. His mother died of colon cancer when he was 12 years old. On her deathbed, she reportedly told him: "Be nice to everybody." Odom was afterwards raised by his maternal grandmother, Mildred Mercer. In his first three years of high school, Odom played for Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village, Queens. He left the school at the start of his senior year due to poor grades, transferring first to Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, New York, and then to the now-defunct St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Britain, Connecticut, where he was coached by Jerry DeGregorio. As a senior, Odom was recognized nationally as the Parade Player of the Year in 1997. Among other distinctions, he earned USA Today All-USA First Team honors and was named to the Parade All-American First Team for the second consecutive year. While still in high school, Odom played on the same AAU team as future NBA teammates Elton Brand and Ron Artest (later known as Metta World Peace); he also played at the Adidas ABCD Camp with future Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant. Adidas executive Sonny Vaccaro commented at the time that Odom possessed a "$2 million smile".
Though he considered entering the NBA directly from high school and consulted Kobe Bryant as a player who had made that jump, Odom ultimately decided that he was not ready and committed to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas instead. However, a Sports Illustrated story questioning the validity of his ACT score and an arrest for soliciting prostitution provided the school cause enough to revoke his scholarship, and for this reason, he never played for the Runnin' Rebels. To the university's further embarrassment, an investigation by the NCAA would later reveal that Odom had received $5,600 in illicit payments from one of its boosters, resulting in the firing of Coach Bill Bayno and UNLV being placed on probation for four years. Odom transferred to the University of Rhode Island, with the cost of his room and board being covered by funds his father received from the G.I. Bill. Since he was admitted as a non-matriculating student, Odom was forced to sit out the 1997–98 season. After two semesters and a summer session, however, Odom earned his eligibility to play intramural basketball. His career at Rhode Island had been in some jeopardy during his first semester after he once vanished before finals; that is until coach Jim Harrick prevailed upon three of his four instructors to let him make up his extant work. The coach also had Odom work alongside DeGregorio, who had become a Rams assistant and ended up being the player's closest friend in college. Odom also drew inspiration from the example of his maternal grandmother, a nurse who had raised five children and returned to school to earn her degree in 1980 at the age of 56. Odom played one season (1998–99) for Rhode Island, during which he averaged 17.6 points per game and led the Rams to the conference championship. He earned First Team All-Conference honors and was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year. He was named the most valuable player of the Atlantic 10 tournament after his three-point shot at the buzzer against Temple gave the Rams their first A-10 title.
Odom declared his eligibility for the 1999 NBA draft after his freshman year at Rhode Island. He then tried to return to college, thinking he was not ready for the NBA; but having already signed with an agent, he was no longer eligible to withdraw from the draft. Odom was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers with the fourth overall pick. In his first season with the Clippers, Odom averaged 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game. He put up 30 points and 12 rebounds in his NBA debut. He was named to the 2000 NBA All-Rookie First Team. In the 2000–01 season, Odom increased his scoring average to 17.2 points a game as he started in 74 games. The Clippers again failed to make the playoffs, however, as the young team could not improve their positioning in the Western Conference. In March 2001, Odom was suspended for five games for violating the terms of the NBA's anti-drug policy. In the following season, he was suspended in November for yet another infraction of the anti-drug policy, his second offense in eight months. He admitted to using marijuana after the suspension. Odom only played 29 games during the season, and his production slipped. He would only play in 49 games during the 2002–03 season, and would become a restricted free agent the following summer. The Miami Heat offered a deal that the Clippers declined to match after already matching another offer the Heat made to Elton Brand.
The Heat had won only 25 games the previous season but had drafted young talent such as Dwyane Wade and Caron Butler. Odom was brought on to play as the team's starting power forward. Along with a budding Wade and the veteran Eddie Jones, Odom shared the scoring load, scoring 17.1 points to go with a career-high 9.7 rebounds per game. Despite an inauspicious start to the season where they lost seven consecutive games, the Heat ended up playing much better and even competing for a seed in the playoffs. On March 6, Odom posted a triple-double, scoring 30 points with 19 rebounds and 11 assists in a home win over the Sacramento Kings. The Heat would go on to clinch the fourth seed in the playoffs and face off against the New Orleans Hornets in the first round. Each team won at home, but the Heat would win a seventh deciding game to advance to the second round and face a top-seeded Indiana Pacers team. The Pacers won the first two games in Indiana, but the Heat responded with two consecutive home wins, including a game 4 victory that was led by Odom's 22 points, however the Pacers' breadth of experience proved too much for the younger Heat; the Pacers claimed games 5 and 6 to win the series. All in all, Odom had a solid season compared to his previous one with the Clippers. After the season, Odom was traded in a package with Caron Butler and Brian Grant to the Los Angeles Lakers for All-Star Shaquille O'Neal.
In his first year with the Los Angeles Lakers, Odom incurred a left shoulder injury that forced him to miss the end of the 2004–05 season. Despite Odom averaging 15.2 points and a career-high 10.2 rebounds, the Lakers finished out of the playoffs for only the 5th time in franchise history. Following the 2004–05 season, they re-hired former coach Phil Jackson. In the first half of the 2005–06 season, Odom showed signs of inconsistency. However, as Los Angeles progressed towards the end of the season, his performance steadily improved. Along the way, he posted consecutive triple-doubles for the first time as a Laker in games against the Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Lakers were eliminated in 7 games in their first round playoffs matchup against the Phoenix Suns, having blown a 3–1 series lead. Odom averaged 14.8 points and 9.2 rebounds during the season and increased his scoring (19.1) and rebounds (11) in seven playoff contests. Battling injuries, Odom was limited to 56 games in 2006–07, but finished with an average of 15.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. In a rematch of the previous year's series, the Lakers were again defeated by the Suns in the first round of the 2007 NBA Playoffs. After young center Andrew Bynum had gone down with a knee injury and Pau Gasol was acquired amid the 2007–08 season, Odom stepped up his production, as he posted averages of 15.3 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists across 36 games. He would finish that season averaging 14.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per contest. In the 2008 NBA Finals, however, his numbers would decline to 13.5 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists per game, with the Lakers falling to the Boston Celtics. In 2008–09, Odom arrived to training camp out of shape. Jackson later disclosed his plan to move Odom to the bench as their sixth man, backing up the Lakers' frontcourt consisting of Gasol, Bynum, and Trevor Ariza. A free agent after the season, Odom initially balked at the prospect of playing as a reserve for the first time in his career. But he came around to the assignment soon enough, having resolved to sacrifice his own numbers to make his teammates happy and in hopes of securing his first NBA championship. In January, after Bynum got injured in a game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Odom returned to the starting lineup. Over the month of February, he averaged 16.5 points and 13.4 rebounds while playing 36 minutes a night. This February run included a standout performance at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. The 15 points Odom scored in the third quarter helped the Lakers turn a 12-point deficit to a 10-point victory, ending Cleveland's 23-game home winning streak in the process. Odom finished the game with 28 points, 17 rebounds, and 2 assists.
