Lamar Odom ready to start over at the Dallas Mavericks – NBA Update
Lamar Odom joined up with new team the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday and the forward said he was ready to help his new side in any way possible. Odom also took a parting shot at former side Los Angeles Lakers, whom he did not end relations with, on a good note owing to a failed transfer deal.
Odom, who won two NBA World Championships with Los Angeles, was included in a three way deal to bring super star Chris Paul from New Orleans Hornets to the Lakers, but wasn’t informed about the deal. After being a loyal servant of the franchise for nearly seven years, he wasn’t expecting it either. So, it came as a shock to him that the Lakers would try to move him on like that.
The deal ultimately fell through because of intervention from the NBA, but cracks appeared between the Lakers and Lamar. He didn’t train with the team last Friday, arriving a full 90 minutes late. Afterwards, Odom put in a transfer request and was sent to Dallas.
"It's definitely surreal," he said. "It happened like that," he said, snapping his fingers while talking to ESPN.
"If somebody is telling you, `You can't be here, there's no more room for you,' you've got to understand that," he said. "I think it's because of how they did it that I took it so personally."
The forward had complained about his treatment by the Lakers earlier and chose not to speak more about the issue. He said it had left a mark on him, but it was also in the past already. His present and future now was with the Dallas Mavericks and he was looking forward to be part of the current NBA World Champions.
"Any time you make a sudden switch, it gets a little emotional," Odom said. "But I'm here now. I'm a Maverick. It's time to put the past behind me."
Lamar isn’t just a star on the NBA floor, but he also has his own reality TV show. Some sources have complained that the Lakers weren’t happy with his commitments on TV and that it was often a distraction for the side.
Odom though doesn’t pay heed to such talk and believes if someone in Los Angeles had a problem with it they should have said that to his face.
"It's something you've got to take with a grain of salt," he said. "I just wish that, if it was, somebody would've told me a little earlier. If it was, then I would've done something about it."
In fact, the forward said being in the spotlight like that actually made him play a little bit better rather than have any adverse effect.
"You never know what's going to make you concentrate just a little harder, and I think it did," he said.
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