Lamar Odom and his public fall from grace could serve as a lesson for any up and coming athlete on what not to do with impending wealth and fame. The former NBA player detailed his years-long struggle with drug addiction and candidly revealed more about his tough upbringing in New York among other tragic moments of his life.
Odom, 37, sat down with Derek Jeter’s The Player’s Tribune website for a discussion, which is also fleshed out in a written piece. It opens with the former Los Angeles Lakers star and two-time champion detailing the moments after the October 2015 overdose situation inside a Nevada brothel that rendered him bed-ridden and facing death.
From The Player’s Tribune:
I was laying there, looking up at the ceiling, and the doctors kept coming in and standing over me and saying some stuff. Then they’d leave. Then they’d come back. Leave, come back. Leave again, come back again. Or maybe I was just going in and out of sleep.
My ex-wife was there in the room with me. After all the shit I had done, I was surprised to see her. Honestly, that’s when I knew that I was probably in bad shape.
At some point, the main doctor came in and told me what had happened. He said, “Mr. Odom, you’ve been in a coma for the last four days. Do you understand?”
I couldn’t talk. So I just nodded.
He said, “It’s a miracle that you’re here. We didn’t think you were going to make it.”
Read Lamar Odom’s powerful piece, including him speaking on the loss of his mother to cancer and the death of his six-month-old son, by following this link. A video of the discussion can also be viewed below.
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Photo: WENN.com
