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Lamar Odom Talks Plans To Retire As a Laker

Lamar Odom opened up about his sudden decline after being traded away by the Lakers

Lamar Odom sat down with Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports to talk about his basketball life and let a couple details slip.

First of all, Odom shared his thoughts on plans to have the two-time champion retire as a LA Laker after he presumably signs a one-day contract with the team during the upcoming training camp. After Odom was traded for Chris Paul back in 2011, then sent back to the Lakers after the league voided the trade for "basketball reasons," the Lakers ended up trading Odom to the Dallas Mavericks.

Due to off the court family tragedy, a longer than usual gap not working out due to the NBA lockout and a new environment in Dallas, Odom never recovered as a basketball player. His substance abuse and near death incident in Las Vegas have been widely documented, but the sad, sudden decline for a player his peers hold in high regard and coaches considered a serious matchup issue on both ends of the court was tough to watch for fans of the purple and gold.

Seemingly, the Lakers are looking to right their wrongs and once again officially claim Odom as one of their own.

Unofficially, that bridge has already been crossed. Odom found his way into LA Lakers' issued attire and appeared to be helping out Luke Walton's coaching staff during the pre-draft workouts. At one point, Odom went up to Lonzo Ball and offered encouragement to the future face of the franchise following Ball's only workout at the Lakers' facility.

The second detail Odom shared was that he wasn't ready to commit to coaching. Rumors of him possibly joining Walton's coaching staff have been brewing for months because Walton is a personal friend of Odom's and a former teammate to boot. Odom shared openly that he enjoyed being in El Segundo on the Lakers' practice court but that he wasn't ready to commit to a life of coaching just yet.

Speaking of the practice court, perhaps the most entertaining tidbit of the story came when Odom colorfully spoke about how he saw Kobe Bryant elbowing Sasha Vujacic in the face with "no warning, rhyme or reason" during practice.

"It was like, '[Expletive], this mother [expletive] Kobe is really serious,'" Odom didn't bother cleaning up his initial thoughts on Bryant. “He's thuggin' at 10 in the morning."

While Odom's future with the Lakers remains undefined, more than likely, the 2017 preseason sounds like it will feature some form of tribute to Odom, which should bring back sweet memories of the back-to-back titles the Lakers won with the "Candy Man" playing a major role.

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