Lamar Odom has always been a rather magical existence.
Generally speaking, stars in the sports circle will inevitably end up in a collapsed house-that is, a ruined career-because of hot searches on keywords such as drugs, PC or “impart. But Odom became a rare exception.
You know, his “collapsed house” in 2015 was probably one of the biggest drug scandals in NBA history (after all, Lun baias, who died of sudden drug abuse in 1986, had not officially played a game), odom himself admitted that the outrageous things he had done were more exaggerated than the news, which had reached an unimaginable level. The strange thing is that whether it is off-court scandal or off-court distraction, Odom has never had a reputation of being disgusted or guilty, and even can win a lot of sympathy.
Recently, he started a new business: He opened three addiction prevention centers in California to save more people from suffering. According to the exposed pictures, Odom’s nursing home is not the high-end institution that he once lived in, and the decoration is not luxurious, but it is rebuilt by renting single-family detached homes in the suburbs, one of them also specializes in treating women, which seems to be quite attentive.
He himself took the initiative to undertake the work of drug addicts. He heard that the former skateboarding god Bamm Magra had a situation similar to that of “a string in his mind collapsed, odom came to visit himself in a T-shirt with Kobe’s portrait and invited Magra to his nursing home.
As a result, Magra really agreed. The appearance of Odom accompanying him in his hospital bed made people seem to have gone back to the memory of eight years ago. At that time, Kobe said to the public that he would withdraw from the competition in advance leg cramps, secretly left the preseason scene with Kupchak and rushed to the hospital to visit Odom, who was critically ill. The doctor had told his relatives and relatives to prepare for the future, but death finally chose to let him go.
A few years later, Odom said painfully that he would rather be taken away by death than Kobe. It is hard to imagine how much a person would dislike himself to say such a thing. Now he also occasionally has vivid dreams about Kobe. In the dream, he and Kobe return to the Lakers’ years and train together in the stadium, but Kobe threw the basket well and suddenly turned to him and said, “The feeling of the past is really completely different from what you imagined.”
Odom believed that such a scene did not come for no reason. It was Kobe’s eldest brother who warned him in his own way and never slipped into the same dangerous trap again.
In the eight years since I left basketball, Odom was still confused most of the time. He was eager to make a comeback, but drugs and alcohol destroyed his body. He couldn’t even pass the trial of the Big 3 league, and the road of basketball was blocked. He tried amateur boxing matches, including Aaron Carter, who lived like him in a mess and finally died, and even was fooled by his former agent to start a brokerage company and wanted to be the next Ricky Paul.
Last year, he broke up with the agent, saying that the other party was a liar and sold his old house in Brooklyn privately, he didn’t log on to his social account-Odom finally went to the headquarters on Instagram to find a talent to unlock it.
It is very important to get back the account, because his new agent (he seems to have a special liking for the older and powerful female agent, and he has the same style for two consecutive times) is very capable. At present, he has received more than a dozen endorsement for him, this requires him to send Guangzi to his account, and he will lose 8,000 yuan if he sends one less. The operation and marketing of this drug rehabilitation center project should also be done by the broker. Compared with the previous confusion, at least now Odom has found a career that has self-realization significance for him.
Emotionally, he seemed to finally make up his mind not to please his ex-wife, but also broke up completely with his fiancee (who was equally strong and good at PUA in his description), and claimed to have given up the “three great evils of life”-drugs, adult and women. Odom loved and hated these three things, and his soul was therefore restless for a moment.
His life in the next 40 years seems to be a cycle of life, but he can’t find his nirvana. The fragile and sensitive heart was once his curse, but whose life could not be sunny forever. Odom has not given up looking for himself so far and can still make people feel the power of self-rescue, which is really like an untimely miracle.
* * * *
From the urine test incident during the men’s basketball training in the United States in 2004, we can see how crazy Odom once lived.
In the summer of that year, Odom came into contact with coke for the first time, and he was addicted to it from then on. However, he soon encountered a practical problem. To represent the United States in the Olympic Games, drug testing is essential. Odom said that he frantically searched for ways to forge urine test results on the Internet, and finally “ordered a huge plastic penis arrive next day”, then the urine was carefully squeezed out of the plastic tube in front of the officials during the urine test, and then successfully boarded the men’s basketball luxury cruise ship.
According to the “cockroach law”, Odom can not change his face in front of the national team, which only shows that he has done such a thing countless times.
When I first entered NBA, Odom was already a chain smoker player. Holding the psychology of lucky seeking stimulation, he didn’t fail the first drug test until 2001. After being banned for five games, he said in a public apology: “Such a thing will never happen again.”
But the real thought in his heart was: “That is not a mistake, but a habit and a way of life. In fact, it took so long (Alliance) to finally catch me, then I can’t quit.”
Before the end of 2001, Odom failed to pass the drug test again. This time he was banned from five matches, but he cried while apologizing. “Everyone must believe me this time,” he said. However, he repeated this kind of speech countless times in the following years. When he ended the rookie contract to test the free market, the Clippers did not match the quotation of the heat. Elgin Baylor also suggested in the statement that there was something wrong with his character.
Pat Riley certainly found out the background of Odom clearly. The latter ate his horse when he first came to Miami for an interview. At that time, Odom was going to go back to New York to continue the carnival after the interview, as a result, Riley told him that no, no, no, he returned the ticket and left training immediately.
Riley embarrassed him, but also won his respect. “He taught me what discipline is,” he said. “I had a gift before, but I didn’t know what hard work and discipline were. Pat appreciated my talent, but was extremely dissatisfied with my attitude of not knowing how to make progress. His teaching is really good medicine.”
Odom cooperated with Riley’s place, including letting the head of heat security follow him in and out of the land of sex dogs and horses and visiting strip clubs three times a week. Odom didn’t really care what kind of report Riley would receive. However, where Riley could not manage, his carnival continued.
He bought a big house in Florida and often entertained his friends in New York or Los Angeles. The ceremony of entering the house was very grand. There were more than 40 women in charge of providing fun alone (he said that most of them were naked until midnight).
It was not until Lisa, the high school girlfriend who gave birth to his child, moved to Miami that Odom converged a little. Riley was more satisfied with his state and asked him to work hard with the goal of magician. Odom really believed it. In the 2003-04 season, he started 80 games for the Heat, with an average of 17.1 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists, and was trained by Riley to be the best in his career.
Unexpectedly, just after the end of the season, facing the opportunity to introduce O’Neal, Riley did not hesitate to use Odom as a bargaining chip. At the moment before submitting the transaction plan to the boss, Alisen, Riley called to apologize to him with sobs. Odom also cried. He realized what business is ruthless and thought that he could recognize the reality from now on and would not be hurt by this business again. But he overestimated his strength.
Odom’s career as a Lakers was actually a bright future. He and Kobe had known each other in the ABCD training camp in 1995. Odom said that although he was not the same as Kobe, he felt quite congenial when he was young. They had fun together when they went to Las Vegas to attend training camp. Odom recalled, under his strong encouragement, Kobe did not refuse the young girl’s embrace.
After meeting again many years later, Kobe fell to the bottom because of the peach scandal, but the requirements for himself and his teammates on the court were unprecedented harsh. If Team training starts at 11 o’clock, Kobe usually goes to the stadium at 5 o’clock to practice by himself. Odom said that he usually came out of the nightclub at that time.
Many people can’t stand Kobe’s style, but Odom has always admired people with a strong mentality so that he can not show any vulnerability, so Kobe’s test of teammates and trust screening fascinated him.
“He will stimulate his teammates with rubbish words and see their reactions. He is really too hard-core. You must show your ability to prove yourself. If you can’t catch his moves, you will be immediately deducted from trust points. If you can’t win his trust on the training ground, then you can’t let him trust you in the competition.”
It is one thing to strive for performance in front of Kobe, but Odom’s drug and XX parties in Miami did not stop. He said he didn’t know why there was more white powder than sand in South Beach. In the summer of 2005, he had the experience of being overdosed in public and was sent to the University of Miami medical school for first aid.
At the same time, he and Lisa are preparing to have a third child. Odom himself also said that no matter with which woman, he did not take protective measures (so he also spent money on abortion for many women). Lisa gave birth to three births at the age of 24, which was really very hard. But when jeden was half a year old, he died in his sleep. That night, Odom was still fooling around in the nightclub. This completely broke up his relationship with Lisa. Lisa began to believe in religion, while Odom continued to sink in drugs. In 2020, Lisa took Odom to court for not paying alimony for a whole year.
In the 2006-07 season, the Lakers informed that they would randomly check his drug test. “At that time, I smoked Coke three times a week and often escaped by chance. In fact, when (the Lakers) called me to prepare for the drug test, I was getting high.”
The evasive method Odom came up with this time was to take advantage of the dead jeden in a despicable way, saying that he would go back to his home in New York to deal with emergencies. In this gap period, he was crazy about filling juice to clear the toxin, waiting for NBA officials to sample, and the test result was “uncertain”. In the end, Odom was confused. If this spot check is still unqualified, NBA has the old rule of “three strikes out” for drug testing. He will be permanently banned and will have to wait for at least two years to get the chance to return to the league.
With the Lakers winning the championship, Odom’s personal development also ushered in a new peak. He truly experienced how cool it was to be a “laker”. Wu jiashic could catch up with Sharapova, reeves can spread gossip with Swift, and Odom also began to contact the entertainment industry, having dinner with Pitt Jolie and going to Hollywood’s “upper class” party.
At a party held by a fellow townsman in new york metta world peace, he met kohler-kardashian for the first time and fell in love with her at first sight (according to his words, it was the degree to which he wanted to push her down at first sight). The two opened the room that night, and then fell in love quickly. They kept pace with each other for a whole month. He said that he admired Kohler’s close relationship with his family very much, which was something he could not seek for a lifetime.
They got married a month later. For quite a long time, he didn’t take drugs so frequently (but he still kept it from her). But in the summer when the Lakers won two consecutive championships, Odom’s little cousin was murdered in New York. When he went to the funeral, the driver also killed a 15-year-old boy, this successive tragedy induced his severe depression. He didn’t cry when his son died, nor did his cousin die, but the unknown teenager died in front of his eyes, which made him completely collapse.
Encouraged by Kohler, he did not to turn to drugs, “I have never practiced so hard before the start of the season. I also learned boxing to improve my concentration and endurance. I made up my mind to make an outbreak year.”
He did. In the 2010-11 season, he won the best sixth person, and he couldn’t bear tears again at the awards conference. On the other hand, the kardashian family hit the iron while it was hot and launched the reality show kohler and lamar, but this put a lot of pressure on odom. The public opinion in the basketball circle questioned him that it was not appropriate to openly engage in sideline business cooperation, the paparazzi in the entertainment circle made him the target of being chased for 24 hours.
In the summer of 2011, he began to relapse more frequently. Besides stress and anxiety, the inducing factors were more guilty of sexual addiction and cheating Kohler. “Kohler is my wife, and drugs are my junior three,” he described his state at that time.
Then there was the last straw that crushed him: The Lakers traded him to Lone Ranger. This is one of the most heavy blows in Odom’s life, which can be called the denial of all his values and directly ruined his basketball career. “My love for basketball disappeared at that moment,” he said.
He didn’t plan to play well in Dallas at the beginning, which led Cuban to turn against him. Odom said that he had long dreamed of beating Kuban severely, but he had always behaved in front of him in a rebellious manner and would not even fight back loudly. But when Cuban hit him, he was really ready to rush over. As a result, Vincent Carter stopped him and told him that it was not worth doing so, which saved his reputation.
Thinking of how Cuban tried to help dronty West later, we can only say that Odom was probably a bit too ridiculous in Dallas. Anyway, after being swept out by the Lone Ranger, Odom’s life was completely derailed. When he got out of control and was rude to kohler under the influence of drugs, when kohler took his mother chris and the security guard to the hotel to catch him (and disposed of a large amount of drugs for him), the divorce agreement was handed to him soon. Then there was a well-known coma in a brothel.
While Odom went to the brothels in the desert alone, which were not shit by birds, there were also incentives. Before that, Chris lied to him that Kohler wanted to meet him in Los Angeles, so he hurried from gambling city. As a result, Kohler didn’t know anything at all, and only hated and scared to see Odom. He immediately understood that Chris could do anything to maintain the brand image of the Kardashian family. His son-in-law was worthless and his daughter could also be used. He followed kohler and was photographed by the paparazzi called by chris during the whole process of being rejected and hated.
After returning to Vegas, he went to a cheap brothel called “Love Ranch” in the desert to hide. Finally, I almost didn’t come out alive.
* * * *
Because too many psychological problems have occurred, Odom may already be half a therapist.
“Since my mother passed away, I have been looking for a replacement, looking for her shadow from every woman I brought home, and filling the lack of maternal love with XX. I want to be loved, but I will never get love. Physical desires may be satisfied, but my soul is always empty. I can change five or six women a week, but that night alone was all over and over. Women are the tools I use to vent and escape.”
But Odom should know very well that his father is his eternal shadow, and his personal tragedy is completely the continuation of his father’s tragedy. Old Odom was born poor and began to contact drugs at the age of 14. High School left school on its own, and his parents couldn’t control him, so they sent him to the army. It was also an unexpected time when the Army sent him to the Vietnam battlefield soon after.
Odom said that the Vietnam War destroyed his father. People with flesh and blood were trained as killing machines one by one. Many soldiers paralyzed themselves by drugs in Vietnam, and those who came back alive were only left with empty shells. Under the circumstance that he didn’t live well, old Odom had a child in his early twenties, and this tragic child was forced to witness his parents quarrelling again and again as soon as he understood, father’s violent beatings to mother again and again, and father’s ruthless abandonment.
Therefore, Odom had only hatred for his father in the first half of his life. He lived with his mother and grandmother and had a rather happy time. He didn’t cause any big trouble when he was a teenager, thanks to Grandma, “the most stable pillar in my life”.
But in 1991, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and his condition deteriorated very quickly. He died in just one year. This is the source of lameness, loneliness and separation anxiety in Odom’s life. From then on, his endurance was very poor. Later, the death of Grandma, son, aunt, cousin and other close relatives all eroded his soul.
Because of the unique talent of basketball, Odom has actually walked smoothly since high school, but this kind of success is not to establish a correct view of right and wrong. When he got the UNLV scholarship, he found a substitute for the entrance examination (higher than the score of the subject), which soon attracted the NCAA survey. But the right view of right and wrong is always a luxury that is hard to reach for children born like Odom.
UNLV canceled his scholarship. After several days of emotional breakdown, what did he do first when he walked out of the house? Drunk driving without a license, looking for a woman-she was also fishing for law enforcement by an undercover policewoman.
Odom said he had never received a formal diagnosis report of mental disorders, “Anyway, this is how I let myself live in my life.”
Just before Kobe died, he was scolded severely for borrowing money from Kobe because he owed a gambling debt. This may also be the reason why he has always been obsessed with Kobe. He said that Kobe’s spirit is too strong and still has a profound influence on him. “I like to go back to Los Angeles, because I can still feel the existence of (Kobe) as soon as I get here.”
No one knows whether Odom will run aground again when he touches the reef next time, but his fate is indeed very strange, just like the two championship rings he got in the Lakers.
Several years ago, when his financial situation was not good, he mortgaged both rings. Later, he wanted to redeem them but felt painful. He just watched the ring be priced at a six-digit price in the auction house, then they were bought by collectors. But at the end of last year, Odom came to the Lakers home to watch the opening match. A fan took the initiative to find him and told him that the two rings were in his hands, and he was happy to return to the original owner.
“He said, ‘Buddy, you can come and take it when you are free, ‘” Odom recalled.
“I really went to find him, and then he returned the ring to me, without any money.”
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(Text/kewell)