Lamar Odom Explains Why He Sabotaged the Start of His NBA Career

Lamar Odom could have been the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, but he sabotaged himself to avoid going to the Chicago Bulls.

Lamar Odom at an album release party.
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Image via Getty/Maury Phillips/Contributor

Lamar Odom at an album release party.

Lamar Odom sat down with The Vertical in southern California recently to talk about a little bit of everything. From the 2011 trade that sent him from the Lakers to the Mavericks (and sent his personal and professional life into a tailspin) to one of his first interactions with Kobe Bryant, Odom spoke on a number of topics and even made the argument that he should still be in the NBA right now. He said that the Mavericks trade essentially ended his career.

"That trade from the Lakers basically ended my career and purpose," Odom said. "I was never really myself ever again. Being in L.A., the structure, the people I knew, it hurt leaving."

But one of the most interesting parts of the interview came when Odom talked about the very beginning of his NBA career. Back in 1999, Odom—who played at Rhode Island during the 1998-99 college basketball season after getting dismissed from the UNLV program—was considered by some to be the best potential No. 1 pick in the days leading up to the 1999 NBA Draft. The Bulls were reportedly considering taking Odom with the top pick, and Skip Bayless of all people wrote this compelling column for the Chicago Tribune detailing why Chicago should have spent their pick on Odom.

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But while speaking with The Vertical, Odom revealed why the Bulls eventually decided to take Elton Brand over him, while he fell all the way to the Clippers at No. 4. According to him, he essentially sabotaged his chances of going No. 1 overall by not showing up for a meeting with the Bulls and by giving them every reason in the book to go in a different direction. It seems Odom wasn’t a big fan of the way the late Jerry Krause, then the general manager for the Bulls, questioned him during a pre-draft interview, so he decided to do whatever he could to force the Bulls to take someone other than him.

Odom derailed his chances of being selected No. 1. Then-Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, who died in March, and then-coach Tim Floyd waited seven hours at the airport for Odom’s predraft visit to Chicago, Odom says, but he no-showed and spent the day on Jones Beach in Long Island.

It’s hard to say if going to Chicago would have altered Odom’s career path at all. After spending four seasons with the Clippers, he eventually signed with the Heat and was then traded back to Los Angeles to play for the Lakers a year after agreeing to a deal with Miami. And that’s where he would stay for seven seasons before getting dealt to Dallas in the trade that would mark the beginning of the end for Odom in the NBA.

You can check out his full interview with The Vertical here. If you missed it in July, you can also check out the touching Players’ Tribune piece Odom wrote here.

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