As his Martin Luther King Day reunion with the Los Angeles Lakers approaches, Lamar Odom has revealed that he was "real close" to walking away from the game for a season -- or perhaps longer -- well before his December trade to the Dallas Mavericks. Left reeling by the July murder of his 24-year-old cousin and a fatal car accident days later that killed a teen pedestrian after the car he was riding in as a passenger collided with a motorcycle, Odom told ESPN.com that he had to be convinced by wife Khloe Kardashian to scrap his plans for a hiatus. "Real close," Odom said when asked Saturday how close he came to asking the Lakers for a season-long sabbatical. "My wife talked me out of it. "Cause I was asking myself: 'Was I mentally prepared to play? If I didn't play well, was I mentally prepared to help the team?' I had thought, 'Maybe I need a year.' Because of the lockout, I thought, 'Maybe somebody's sending me a sign that I needed this time off.' "(But) when I told some of my friends and my family that I was thinking about steppin' back for a minute, I think the reaction from the closest people to me kind of gave me the energy to get back at it." Read more: http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story...ys-was-real-close-walking-away-game-offseason
