Almost immediately after Lamar Odom’s alleged drug problems went public, the guessing game began as to what substances he may be abusing. Prescription drugs? Marijuana? Meth? No, no and no. If the latest whispers are to be believed, Odom has been excited about crack cocaine.
According to TMZ, the NBA star has supposedly been experimenting with crack on and off for the past two years. That could explain why he suddenly got so godawful at basketball while in Dallas, and it probably goes a long way to explain why he got sent home before the season was even over. Apparently, he got his act together once the season started for the Clippers last year, but once the lights went out on the team’s playoff run, it’s been one giant party.
Unfortunately for Odom, that big party crashed back to reality earlier this week when his wife, Khloe Kardashian, allegedly give him the boot from their shared home. If this crack abuse story has any merit to it, that certainly seems like a sensible response, especially considering he also may have cheated on her.
When it comes to drug use in the NBA, I’m not particularly bothered by off-season weed use. Technically, smoking a little pot is illegal and could have consequences, but provided a player is smart about it, I wouldn’t really look down on him for it. Smoking crack, however, is another matter entirely. For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would ever go there. It destroys lives with a reckless efficiency, and beyond that, it’s unsafe, dirty and pretty classless. Apart from momentary euphoria, I can’t see a single positive with doing it once, let alone abusing it.
Since Odom isn’t signed with an NBA team and an intervention held on Wednesday reportedly failed, it’s unclear where the former Sixth Man of the Year might go from here. Unfortunately, without a full scale change in his mindset, I can’t imagine this ends very well. After all, I’m not sure anyone has ever looked back on ignoring an intervention with fondness, a fact the characters of How I Met Your Mother are certainly aware of.
When he wants to be, Odom can be a very generous and kind-hearted guy. Most of his teammates were big fans of the power forward throughout his tenure in the NBA, and during the early part of his marriage, he got along great with his wife Khloe. Hopefully, after plenty of soul searching, Lamar can get back to being that smiley, loveable guy, whether his marriage can be saved at this point or not.
