It has been nearly a year since Lamar Odom was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel after overdosing on drugs. At the time, his situation seemed fatal and most assumed the former NBA champion and Sixth Man of the Year was near death.
Fortunately, Odom miraculously survived and recovered. Months after the initial scare, he was seen publicly with Kanye West at a fashion show and later appeared at two basketball games, including Kobe Bryant’s final game. Odom spoke in Bryant’s farewell video and even stepped on the court after the final buzzer to congratulate his former teammate.
Those were good signs for LO, whose long history of hardships and tragedies are well documented. It seemed that former power forward was at least close to fully recovered, even talking big game about making an eventual NBA comeback.
Unfortunately, things may not be quite as bright as they seem. According to TMZ Sports (and brought to our attention by Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine), Odom’s friends and family are worried that he is back to using “hard drugs.”
But multiple sources close to Odom — hoping to get through to the NBA star — tell us he’s been acting very strange lately. His friends are convinced he’s off the wagon, and for the last few weeks they’ve been trying to get through to him.
So, a group of people went to his home to convince him to enter rehab — but Odom scoffed … telling the group he doesn’t need any help. […]
During the confrontation, which took place at Odom’s home in Calabasas, we’re told his friends noticed drug paraphernalia scattered all over the place … including crack pipes, baggies and roaches.
You can take this report with a grain of salt, if you wish, but it is obviously troubling to hear even for one second that Odom may be back to using the drugs that almost took his life a few months ago.
Odom’s relationship with his estranged wife Khloe Kardashian often comes up in these reports about his health and many times they are unfair to her as a person, regardless of her fame and reality TV status. But with the issue of the two still separating and Kardashian looking to divorce him, one can assume the strain and stress Odom is feeling has caused him to resort to drugs once again.
Obviously we do not know the full story here and we cannot do much more than hope and pray that Lamar gets his life together and that his friends and family support him. Personally, Lamar Odom is one of my favorite players of all time and by all accounts one of the nicest people to ever wear an NBA jersey. I wish he would not be remembered for his issues off the court instead of his play on it. But in order for that to happen, Lamar needs a strong web of connections supporting him along the way as he recovers fully.
We will continue to think about and pray for Lamar and hope that he can finally put his demons behind him.
