Former Lakers champ Lamar Odom breaks silence after scary incident where he crashed his Mercedes

Jesse Cinquini
3 Min Read

Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom recently crashed his Mercedes into two parked cars after dropping his phone, reaching for it and losing control of the vehicle. Fortunately, nobody was injured.

On Sunday, Odom took to X (formerly Twitter) to speak on the scary incident and thank those who have reached out to him to check in.

Odom was selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft after a very productive one-season stint playing college basketball at the University of Rhode Island. He averaged 17.6 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.5 blocks per game across 32 appearances with the Rams during the 1998-99 season (all starts).

Those numbers were good enough for Odom to earn Rookie of the Year honors in his conference.

Odom’s contributions on both ends of the floor translated into a whole lot of success for the 1998-99 iteration of the Rams. They finished the season with an impressive 20-13 record and made the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, the Rams lost in the first round of the tournament by a final score of 81-70. Odom finished with a team-high 16 points in the loss.

The 43-year-old played for four teams — the Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks — across his 14 seasons in the NBA.

Odom is best known for his time playing with the storied Lakers franchise, seeing as he helped the team win back-to-back NBA titles in 2009 and 2010. He spent seven seasons with the Lakers and averaged 13.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game across 519 total regular season games with the team (382 starts).

Arguably Odom’s best season as a Laker came during his final season with the team, the 2010-11 campaign. The forward averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in 82 appearances during the regular season and won the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award.

Odom’s last action in the NBA came during the 2012-13 season as his production was dipping. But in all, he had a nice career.

Thankfully, Odom seems to be in good spirits following the car crash. Here’s to hoping that the former Lakers forward won’t find himself in a similar situation again.

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Jesse is a sports journalist with extensive experience covering the NBA. He has worked as a staff writer covering the Lakers’ dreaded rivals, the Boston Celtics, for SB Nation. He has also covered the New York Knicks for The Knicks Wall.