So as you can probably tell by what I have on my blog, I am a huge Laker fan and I'm an especially big fan of Lamar Odom, who plays for the Lakers. That's him in the title picture. I also have that picture as my wallpaper on my laptop as well as on my cell phone. A little excessive? Maybe, but seeing his face makes me smile. His contract with the Lakers was up as of July 1st and needless to say, I spent a miserable few weeks worrying that my favorite player would no longer be playing for my favorite team. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and he resigned for another 4 years so I'm really looking forward to watching him hopefully win more rings with the Lakeshow in the coming years. Many might wonder who this guy is and why I would pick him as my favorite player because he's not all that famous compared to players like Kobe or Lebron. He's my favorite player because of who he is as a person as well as the unique combination of his size and his skills on the basketball court.
Lamar has been through a lot in his 29 years on this earth. His dad was never around, he lost his mother to colon cancer at the age of 12. He has since lost the grandmother who raised him as well as his 6 month old son to crib death on the anniversary of his grandmother's death. As a young player in the NBA, he had some trouble with marijuana, but he owned up to it, faced it, and rose above it to become a better person. Lamar is very genuine and humble, extremely generous, and very fun loving. His nick name is the Candyman because he LOVES candy and is always sharing candy with everyone. He is also called 'The Goods' and 'The Package' because of how versatile a player he is.
Lamar is 6'10" but has the skills of a guard. He handles the ball and has such a versatile game that he reminds me of my all time favorite player: Magic Johnson. Lamar can post up and rebound or he can bring the ball up the court, or shoot a three pointer. Probably my favorite move of his is when he rebounds the ball and dribbles the length of the court for the layup, going coast to coast like Magic used to do. Lamar is an extremely unselfish player on the basketball court and gets as much pleasure getting an assist as he does scoring. He always puts the team over his own stats or individual goals, and many young players look up to him. This past season, he would invite players from the Lakers' NBDL team the Defenders to his house to hang out, he would take them to dinner, or take them shopping for clothes. He is a really sweet, unselfish guy and everybody loves him. I was so happy to see him win a championship this year and can't wait to see him get his championship ring on opening night vs the Clippers!
I will be posting a lot about Lamar, so be prepared. Training camp starts in early October. I follow Lamar on twitter:
http://twitter.com/RealLamarOdom. He is a very funny guy and occasionally does contests for prizes and stuff. His twit pics should post automatically at the bottom of the page.
He also has a website:
http://www.lamarodom.com/ Here you can see the latest news on LO with pictures as well as video. It will give you an idea of what a great person he is.
Lamar also has his own line of clothing called Rich Soil:
http://richsoil.bigcartel.com/ It's mostly T-shirts but they are really cool and creative. I own one and hope to own a few more in the near future.
