Even in professional sports, where the greatest athletes in the world are compensated like CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies to play a child’s game, sometimes feelings still get hurt for reasons that have nothing to do with bank accounts.
Lamar Odom was once figured to be a key piece in a trade that sent Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers. That trade didn’t happen, but that didn’t make Odom feel any better about it. As a result, he requested a trade away from a team who employed him during the most productive seasons of his career. And as a result of that, the player that Dallas eventually did get is still kind of out.
After being named the NBA’s 6th Man of the Year last season, following two years when he helped Kobe’s Lakers win two championships, Lamar is currently averaging 6 points and 5 rebounds on 31% shooting from the floor so far with the Dallas Mavericks. Not the type of numbers Dallas had hoped for, nor is it the type of production we’ve come to expect from the versatile forward either over the last few seasons.
It’s the type of production you can’t help but think relates just about directly to the Lakers stunning him in their attempt to deal him almost a month ago now. Something Odom talked about prior to tonight’s game with his old Lakers this weekend, in a conversation with The Los Angeles Times:
“For them just to [try to] trade me without communicating, it made me start to ask myself questions like ‘Why would they do something like that?’ ” said Odom, who found out he was in the attempted Paul trade from a Times reporter. “It hurt my feelings. Why would they choose to go that route? My father lives in California and I take care of my dad. They know about my family situation, everything about me, everything about Lamar.
“It was impossible for me not to take it personally. When I spoke to one of the representatives for the Lakers, the first thing he said was ‘Don’t take it personally.’ That means it’s personal if that’s the first thing someone says to you.”
He wonders about his role in reality TV shows with his wife, Khloe Kardashian, and his increasing off-court profile.
“Were those the reasons I got traded? Because I don’t know what I did,” he said, again referring to the New Orleans plan. “I never was told ‘This is why they’re doing it.’ I was told from the guy that represents me, who is good at what he does, that it’s a straight money thing. They just wanted to get rid of money. I thought we had established the type of relationship that if that was the case, they’d just tell me.”
“Basketball-wise, it’s been humbling because I was so unprepared for a trade,” Odom said. “I wasn’t ready to go one on one yet. [Mavericks fans] are looking at me as the guy that played for the Lakers. That’s who I am. The guy that played for the enemy that does reality shows that’s married to Khloe. It’s a different vibe. And me getting off to a slow start, people are like, ‘I thought he was [good]. Is that it?’ “
Hopefully that’s not it from Odom, and hopefully he can get it together here moving forward. It does have to be tough with his father living in California, and it is kinda shady business from the Lakers to at least not give Odom a heads up that he’s on the block. But with that said, in the Lakers defense, all those trades during the compacted offseason were happening pretty fast. Maybe they simply never got a chance to tell him, and wanted Chris Paul so bad they’d have traded anybody not named Bryant to make that happen.
So as genuine as Odom’s feelings might be right now, hopefully this trip back to LA can be some sort of healing process for all that.
