Lamar Odom needs a hug or a big stuffed animal or . . . something. He deserves it. To see the look on his face as he fouled out with a few seconds left in what may be his last game as a Laker was terrible. Lamar Odom poured his heart into this season, before the season his infant son died and he struggled with other things as well, but in the season opener, he ended up with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists. I thought this would be his year; he played like an all-star until he sprained his knee against Houston. Up to that point I voted for him on every computer I could find. I knew this could be his season. After he returned from his injury the Lakers were already on their slide, it was painful. It was clear that Odom was trying but he had lost a step, lost his rhythm and most importantly lost confidence. I was very frustrated with him during that part of the season. Then he injured his shoulder and could not believe that fortune could ho-nestly deal him one more blow. He sat out a couple games; I imagine that he must have had an epiphany. He knew that he had to Carpe Diem (like Kobe say) and save both his and the Lakers season. While he did not save our season by any stretch of the imagination he tried and showed that he had heart and loyalty, unlike a certain snowboarding sloviean. Even though his elbow and been hyper extended in game three of the phoenix series he continued to play. Last year Odom’s play really picked up after the trade deadline when all the rumors of the Lakers shipping him off had died down. This year, even after the headline “Odom’s Last Game as a Laker?” appeared on espn.com he poured his heart into this game, giving 33 points, 10 rebounds, and two assists. The look of absolute despair on Lamar’s face as one of the ball boys put the NBA logo stamped towels on his head was an expression of his loss and all of the emptiness he has felt this year.
Last year, after receiving a text message from the NBA informing me of the Lakers inability to close out the Suns, I felt so empty. I felt out of it all week. I knew today that I would not feel the same way because this slide started before all-star break, it was to be expected. At least we did better than the defending champs. Then I saw that dreadful look and it made me feel worse than last year, hopefully this will not last as long. One of the commentators said as they saw that same look on his face “If I had to choose someone to be on my team, I would have to choose Lamar.” Well, I am not sure if I agree if I purely wanted to win, but Lamar genuinely cares which is important. Ultimately, we should’ve traded Bynum for Kidd. Then our big three would be Kobe, Kidd and Odom, which would certainly be formidable. I think Kidd would have really been able to take advantage of Odom’s strengths while take the ball handling load of Odom’s and Bryant’s shoulders. Then we would have maybe Kwame or Moore at center and Luke at small forward. We might have had a chance at winning this series or at least competing for more than one game.
One major problem people had with J-Kidd is that he wouldn’t have been able to learn the triangle or that he wouldn’t be able to run the triangle at all. The truth of the matter is we aren’t running the triangle, lets just try winning first.
P.S. KG! KG! KG! KG! KG!
P.P.S. Lamar can’t start talking about wanting to retire a Laker, it really depresses me.
