Lamar Odom, Ex-Husband Of Khloe Kardashian, Eyes Basketball Comeback
Lamar Odom will turn 40-years-old later this year. He hasn’t played in the NBA since 2014, and his years of battles with drug addiction culminated in his nearly dying in late 2015 when he was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel. At the time of the 2015 incident, Odom was in the midst of a divorce from Khloe Kardashian, with whom he had appeared on various reality shows; the two finally divorced in 2016.
However, all of that adversity doesn’t mean that Odom’s basketball career is over. Odom, this week, was drafted by a team called the Enemies, in the 3-on-3 basketball league known as the Big3. The league, which was founded by Ice Cube, is mostly populated by retired NBA players, and includes some unconventional game play, such as a half-court setup and four-point baskets.
Per NBC Sports, Odom will join the Enemies, whose other players include captain Gilbert Arenas, as well as former college star-turned-mental health advocate Royce White, Craig Smith, and Frank Robinson. The team’s coach is the 1980s Detroit Pistons big man Rick Mahorn.
The Big3 will have 12 teams in 2019, several of them having puns involving “3” in the their names. The other teams are the 3-Headed Monsters, 3’s Company, Aliens, Ball Hogs, Bivouac, Ghost Ballers, Killer 3s, Power, Tri-State, Triplets, and Trilogy.
Per a Los Angeles Times profile published this week, Odom says he has no memory of the brothel incident which nearly cost him his life. The player told the newspaper that he had 12 strokes and six heart attacks while in a coma, but survived the ordeal.
Your official 2019 BIG3 rosters. LETS GET TO WORK ??? pic.twitter.com/Un14Pw6Dd1
— BIG3 (@thebig3) May 2, 2019
Odom played in the NBA from 1999 through 2013, having stints with the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, and again with the Clippers; he also signed with the New York Knicks, but never played in a game for them. The winner of two NBA championships, both with the Lakers, Odom also played in Spain briefly.
The basketball player and Khloe Kardashian were married in 2009, just a month after they first met, and Odom made frequent appearances on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, before he and Khloe starred in a spinoff series, Khloé & Lamar, that ran for two seasons. The couple split in late 2013, amid reports of Odom’s spiraling drug addiction.
Following Odom’s hospitalization, Khloe was publicly supportive of her estranged husband, although the couple’s divorce eventually went through in 2016. After their split, Khloe moved on to another NBA player, James Harden, and later yet another, Tristan Thompson.
