Dallas Mavericks ace Dirk Nowitzki finally opens up about Lamar Odom – NBA Update
This season has been about a lot of lows for Dallas Mavericks. The winners of last years’ NBA title had a poor start to the season, in which they never got going, making it the first time after 11 years that the franchise ended
up with a below 50 win record (36-30).
Then came the playoffs and the Mavs were found wanting against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Although the drop in Mavericks performance came due to the decisions of Mark Cuban in the pre-season, when he let players like Tyson Chandler, DeShawn Stevenson and J.J. Barea go in the free agency; the franchise progress was jolted
by one Lamar Odom.
Odom joined the Mavericks in a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers early in the season, after the Lakers had disgruntled the ‘Sixth Man of the Year’ by trying to send him away in the nixed Chris Paul deal. His arrival was welcomed
by all at the Mavericks and his addition was supposed to provide the Mavs some much needed depth in the front court.
However Odom never came into his own at the franchise and then began a series of excuses and controversies, which eventually resulted in him being sidelined from the Mavericks roster, although he is still under their pay scale.
The Odom controversy took a lot of steam out of the Mavericks campaign and for once, they were in the spotlight for all the wrong reason. Although the axing act came after Odom confronted Cuban, if rumours are to be believed it
was a locker room scuffle with Dirk Nowitzki, the superstar forward, which was the final nail in the coffin.
Nowitzki never confirmed or refuted these reports at that time, nor did he open up about LO, but now after the season has finally ended for the Mavs, the big German has spoken;
"If the Lamar thing would have worked out and if he would have played like the year before when he was the best sixth man, I think we would have had a shot," Dirk Nowitzki said of going deeper in the playoffs. "It would have given
us another playmaker, another guy that's long, that can defend and rebound.
"But for whatever reason the stuff he was going through off the court was just too much. He couldn't help us the way he wanted, the way we wanted, and we had to move on without him."
His remarks came after it was reported that the Dallas players have decided not to give a share of their playoffs money to Odom. Guess the actions really show how much they regard LO.
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