32 year old player, Lamar Joseph Odom's, team status has been changed so quickly. About 2 months ago, in December 2011, Lamar was switched from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Dallas Mavericks. But on February 22nd, when his new team was supposed to play his old team, Lamar explained that his father, Joe Odom, was suffering from some health issues, and asked for personal leave permission. Lamar was expected to return on Febraury 26th, but did not, until February 29th. By then, he had missed 3 games. And it doesn't help that his average points per game has been a mere 7.7, as opposed to the 14.4 average he had while playing for the Lakers. As a result, Odom has been dropped from the Mavericks and signed to the Texas Legends, an NBA D-League team (minor league teams, where players are sent to try to develop and improve their game enough to be signed to a major league team.)
To his benefit, some report that Odom actually asked to be demoted, for a while. His agent said,
"He proposed it to the Mavs; they never asked him. He wanted to get some floor time in actual game conditions before rejoining the team. People need to educate themselves on the rules in place here. NBA veterans don't get sent to the D-League without their consent."
But the team owner, Mark Cuban, expressed a different view on the issue. He said,
"Odom left the Mavs on Feb. 22, the morning they played Odom's former team, the Los Angeles Lakers. Odom went to be with his father, Joe Odom, who was ill. But late last week, Joe Odom told TMZ that he only had an upset stomach, and that his son did spend the night with him on Feb. 22. So, where is the missing Maverick? He's just dealing with issues and like we do with anybody else that's had personal issues, our job is to try and help them out and not to comment beyond that. He's got to figure things out and that's what we're trying to help him do. We'll just keep on working with him, and when it's resolved, it's resolved. Everybody deals with their own issues differently, so we'll see."
Of course, wifey, Khloe Kardashian Odom, is not happy about all the media rumors that have been focused on her hubby in the last 2 days. While Lamar, himself, hasn't tweeted anything, Khloe has, indeed, tweeted her disapproval of the media speculation. Peep what she had to say.
Either way, it has been confirmed that Odom will play in tonight's Texas Legends D-League game. But, the coach, Rick Carlisle, also said that he might have Odom return to the Dallas Maverick Major League as soon as tomorrow. So, hopefully, we'll get to see an improved Lamar Odom on the major league court sooner than later.
[Yahoo, Slam, LATimes]
-@Kami2Kute
