Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom revealed that Boston Celtics fans shook the Lakers’ team bus after the team lost to Boston in the 2008 NBA Finals.
The Lakers were blown out in Game 6 of the Finals, losing 131-92. Odom described the scene on the bus after the game, sharing that families of the players were also present.
“The first series is why I hate the Celtics,” Odom said. “‘Cause, they beat us by like 35 in Game 6. When you go to the Finals, you got your family on the bus – everybody on the bus and all that. They beat us by 35, these fans surrounded our bus and started shaking it.”
That’s certainly a scary situation, especially with non-players potentially being caught in a riot-like scenario.
“They didn’t care,” Odom said of the fans, when asked if the families were on the bus at the time.
The Celtics and Lakers are longtime rivals, as they are the two franchises with the most championships in the NBA.
Odom and the Lakers ended up getting their revenge on the Celtics, beating them in the 2010 NBA Finals. It was the second straight season that the Lakers won the championship, as they beat the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard in the 2009 NBA Finals.
The second series with Boston ended up going seven games, with the Lakers pulling out a close game in Game 7 – 83-79. Kobe Bryant led the way for the Lakers in that game, scoring 23 points and adding 15 rebounds.
Odom had seven points, seven rebounds and two assists off the bench in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals.
While the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics is intense, it’s still scary that fans would put players or their families in a dangerous situation like that.
Luckily, it seems like everyone came out of that situation without a serious problem happening.
Odom played seven seasons with the Lakers, and he became one of the team’s most important players in their championship runs. In seven seasons with Los Angeles, Odom averaged 13.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 33.0 percent from beyond the arc.
He won the Sixth Man of the Year award in his final season with the Lakers before moving on to play with the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Clippers in the next two seasons.
