Just a Little Pep Talk Gets Odom on the Right Track
Before the two babies made nice at mid-court, I stopped by the Laker locker room to remind Lamar Odom he has the potential to be one of the best players in the NBA just like Kobe & Shaq, but to date has been a disappointment.
"The only thing keeping me from [being considered one of the game's best] is 10 more Ws in the win column," Odom argued.
The Lakers would have 10 more wins if you were the player I thought you would be, I said, and as pregame pep talks go, I thought this one was going just fine.
I said, "You should have spent the summer with your left hand tied behind your back since you can only go to your left," and he said, "People have been telling me that since I was 10 years old and here I am in the NBA."
Just imagine how good you might be if you could dribble with your right hand, I said in my best Gary Payton-like voice — some folks in the NBA referring to Odom as the "one-arm bandit."
He said some people have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to basketball so what they have to say is really irrelevant, and my guess was he was referring to Payton.
I asked Odom to define his role with the Lakers, thinking maybe he had gotten the wrong marching orders, and he said, "to facilitate, rebound and lead the team in assists."
That's why Phil Jackson likes the guy, of course, and why Kobe has to score 40 points most nights — because the second-best player on the team remains a reluctant scorer. So I told Odom he has to score more, and he said, "OK, so I'll score more tonight," and why do I get the feeling sometimes that I do more coaching than Phil?
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THE FIRST half just ended and Odom has scored more points in two quarters than what he has been averaging per game this season. Odom, playing brilliantly, scored 15 points, led the team with five assists and had six rebounds along with Chris Mihm to lead the Lakers.
As a result, the Miami Heat trailed the Lakers by 15 points, and if Odom played this aggressively all the time, the question wouldn't be whether the Lakers make the playoffs, but just how far they might advance.
The problem, of course, is that Jackson doesn't allow me into the Laker locker room at halftime, so I couldn't challenge Odom to remain aggressive for the entire game. When the third quarter began, he disappeared, and so did a good fraction of the Laker lead.
Odom's burst of energy, though, had given the Lakers the early cushion they needed against a team playing its final game of a seven-game trip, and when the game was on the line, his fall-away jumper with 19.2 seconds remaining secured the win.
That's what you'd expect from a big-time NBA scorer.
