Odom Seizing his Opportunity

Shapecity · Feb 9, 2009

CLEVELAND – To reach the exit of the locker room and the end of this perfect road trip, Pau Gasol had to squeeze his slender frame between a wall and one of the many journalists and cameramen crowding around Lamar Odom after the Lakers' victory.

As Gasol reached the door, he said softly to himself: "Way to play, Lamar Odom. Way to (expletive) play."

There is personal respect, and then there is man respect – which is the reason Gasol had to add the expletive.

The former is something Odom has always had as a good guy and fun person who is very willing to put others' needs ahead of his own. If he is now earning the latter – showing his teammates he can be there for them andcarry them in times of need – then the occurrence of Andrew Bynum's injury is certainly just a blip in the Lakers' season, not the cliff.

– Karl Malone on TNT Thursday night: "How much talent can God bless one guy with? Lamar Odom is one of the most talented guys (and) last I checked he wanted a new contract. Hey, step up, big fella. … He can handle the ball, he can shoot the 3, a great shot-blocker when he wants from the weak side. How much disruption are you going to cause?"

Odom had a sit-down meeting with Phil Jackson in October after Odom initially resisted and publicly mocked Jackson's brainstorm to make Odom a reserve entering his contract year.

"Of course my agent would like me to play 40 minutes and things like that, but I promised him (Jackson) whatever he needed me to do, I would do," Odom said about the meeting. "I really meant it, too."

No doubt. Odom is a team guy, which is why Jordan Farmar was saying after the victory in Cleveland: "He has sacrificed as much as anyone this year to make this team run. It means a lot to everybody."

But Jackson's call for Odom to become a force off the bench despite the perceived demotion went unanswered. Bynum, meanwhile, took the starting gig and was storming ahead toward stardom until he sprained his knee early in the second game of this trip.

Odom stepped up in the second half of that game in Memphis, and the Lakers held off the lowly Grizzlies. Kobe Bryant gave 61 reasons in the next game in New York why things would be OK – although Jackson was nervous enough about the Bynum injury to ask Bryant at halftime to involve Odom more

"I wanted to see Lamar be active," Jackson said Monday night.

–Jackson on Tuesday night, smiling when I asked him to evaluate Odom's overall defense this season: "Because you wrote an article on him a week ago, kind of pillorizing the guy, that's a pointed question. Lamar is a spontaneous defender. Is that a good term? You like that one? It means he reacts; he's just a reaction player a lot of times. We're trying to do things in shifts and kind of a template of how do we want to get to a certain defensive position on the floor. He's kind of learning that aspect of it."

Odom unbelievably threw the ball into the backcourt for a turnover off the opening tip that night in Toronto, and Jackson yelled, "Wake up!" at him not long after for defensive inattentiveness, but Odom "played well enough," Jackson said later.

Odom took a shoulder to the chin blocking a late-game shot and needed three stitches to close the wound. Before the next game in Boston, he quipped in that entertaining way of his: "I took it on the chin!"

More seriously, Odom also said Thursday night: "I want to be a Laker for the rest of my life." Little did he know, Mitch Kupchak had a trade in the works to dump Vladimir Radmanovic's future salary and at least let a ray of hope stream in Odom's direction.

But Odom missed two foul shots nine seconds into the game in Boston. He compounded it with his own foul trouble and then got ignored by a disgusted Jackson at halftime.

"P.J. didn't say nothin' to me," Odom said. "Sometimes that's worse when it comes to him. I knew that I was going to have to come out in the second half and stay focused."

To finish a Lakers-Celtics battle royale that would've impressed Odom idol Ric Flair, the pro wrestler, Odom dramatically hit two foul shots with 16 seconds left to give the Lakers the victory. Bryant's postgame summation was that Odom "showed a lot of growth in his focus."

– Kenny Smith on TNT Thursday night: "To get him (Odom) going, he needs someone to slap him in the face."

Word of Bryant's Sunday morning stomach virus hit Odom like a slap in the face. It motivated him to strap on his double set of black tube socks and set the mind that Jackson has tried to get in the game for 3 ½ years.

Odom meditated before the game, just the way Jackson has taught, and visualized scoring success.

"I told myself that the first rebound I got, I was going to take it to the hole and score," Odom said. "It kind of opened the game up for me, and I found the flow of the game when I was able to do that. After that first play, I felt great."

To go with 17 rebounds and solid defense aside from one glaring third-quarter glitch – for which he sought clarification from Bryant, Jackson and assistant coach Kurt Rambis in a demonstration of the Lakers' commitment to defensive communication in the second half – Odom scored 28 points.

Always limited by unwillingness to move without the ball and inability to read the defense, Odom did both masterfully against a Cleveland defense tilted toward Bryant and Gasol. Upon seeing Bryant on a table being fed a liter of intravenous fluids at halftime, Odom scored 15 points in the third quarter.

Before this six-game trip began, Odom was at 9.4 points per game. He was coming off a disastrous defensive breakdown that left Bryant livid and stuck the Lakers with an embarrassing home loss to Charlotte.

Odom headed back home late Sunday night as the king of the road.

Being the fun-loving sort that he is, Odom was eager to get back in time for Russell Simmons' post-Grammy Awards party. But first he was told what Farmar had said about him being such a great team guy this season.

"That's one of the biggest compliments you can get," Odom said.

It's also nothing new for Odom. What was new was the focused game he gave.

Just ask Jackson, who said when asked the last time Odom delivered that much on the court: "How long do I have to wait."

But then Jackson added: "No, that was one of the best games he's played for us. He has had some spectacular games, but that was a terrific game. I think it was the total package of his game."
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Source: OC Register

Mamba · Feb 9, 2009

I hope Odom can keep this play up while Bynum is out. I don't want to start to expect 15-18ppg and 10-12 rpg from him just yet.

Moo2K4 · Feb 9, 2009

I really hope Odom can keep this play up. The better he plays, the less pressure on Kobe, Gasol and the bench, which is always a good thing.

DaRizzle · Feb 9, 2009

Odom has been down this path before, and so have we...we shall see if this time its different, doubt it, but hope so

Mamba · Feb 9, 2009

I hope he doesn't disappear in the playoffs again.

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Odom Seizing his Opportunity

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Odom Seizing his Opportunity

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Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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