Lamar Odom will be parting company but not from his reality T.V. co-star Khloe Kardashian. Instead the Dallas Mavericks will place Odom on the inactive list until the season is over at which time he will be traded. Rick Carlisle and the Mavs had simply had enough.
Lamar Odom and the Dallas Mavericks are splitting up. Photo: the urbandaily.com
It has been a tough year for the 32 year old 6′ 10″ forward who experienced private life issues last summer which carried through to the start of the regular season. Extremely angry when the Chris Paul deal was announced, Odom demanded the Lakers trade him, which they did the following day to the Mavs. It was truly a case of “be careful what you wish for cause you just might get it”.
Playing in Dallas has been a nightmare for Odom as well as the Mavs. For one thing, he never felft comfortable playing the 3. He had always played the Power Forward position and just felt out of place. His season averages of 6.6 points and 4.2 rebounds on 35.2 % shooting from the field, will bear that out.
And then there were all the distactions Odom’s presence on the court brought to the arena, the coaches, and the team. Boos were heard sparatically throughout the crowds over the last few weeks, spurred on by Odom’s self-imposed 10-day leave of absence citing “Personal Issues”.
The former 1st round, fourth overall pick of the L.A. Clippers in the 1999 draft had a promising career playing four years with the Clippers, one with the Heat, and seven with the Lakers. The 2010-2011 NBA Sixth Man of the Year recipient was just never the same after being traded to the Mavs. The bottom fell out soon after the Mavs game in Los Angeles vs the Lakers; a game in which Odom received a standing ovation from the Staples Center crowd which lasted for several minutes.
It was all downhill not long after Odom was reunited with Kobe and his former teammates in L.A. Photo: jocksand stilettojill.com
The media exaserbated the tense situation by converging on head coach Rick Carlisle invariably after every game with questions focused on Lamar Odom. Apparently, after this past weekend, Carlisle and the Mavs had just had enough…
The questions now are, will Odom be traded? Does he even have the desire to continue playing or will he just opt to retire? Will he go back to the Lakers? Can he still be productive if he lands on another team? What is the consenses out there?
