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10.08
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“Lamar Odom really isn’t smoking crack right?”That was the text from my old roommate Noah that I woke up to the other morning. At the time, I had not
heard the full story, but the rumors were out, and at the time I answered, “Yeah, I guess he is.” What’s funny is that I really could not believe it. How could a player of Lamar Odom’s status end up on a three-day coke binge resulting in him being lost for awhile and then a DUI? Is that even possible? Do celebrities really smoke crack, if you are not named Whitney Houston or Bobby Brown? For Christ sakes, even the rapper Danny Brown does not smoke crack anymore! After toiling with this for hours, I decided I had to take it upon myself to figure out what the hell is going on, and more importantly, what it means for the league.I am not in any position to criticize any one for drug use, I did not just want to start pointing fingers at Lamar, so I had to go back and see where he came from first. Many people know that Lamar had a rough upbringing, hailing from Southside Jamaica in Queens, New York. Some other notable Jamaica Queens residents: 50 Cent, Waka Flocka (before his move to Atlanta), Tony Yayo, Loydd Banks, Nicki Minaj[1], and Ron Artest. They are all celebrities now, but I would like to say that at some points in all of those peoples lives they would have possibly been considered, “rough around the edges”, and that is putting to putting nicely. It is a tough area. Lamar’s mother died of cancer when he was 12 and his dad was a heroin addict(a common addiction in New York in the 70’s[2]).
Basketball was Lamar’s savior, even though he was clearly influenced by the streets. He shared an AAU team with both Artest and Elton Brand and as you can imagine they were a wrecking crew. It earned Brand a full ride to Duke. Artest headed to St. Johns and Lamar to UNLV. Now, it is to my understanding that UNLV would be the easiest of those three schools to attain the placement scores to gain admission. My thinking is, if Artest can get his scores up, so can Lamar. But SI reported upon his admission to UNLV that his ACT score of 22 was unexpectedly high, and scandal followed him right to campus. While dealing with his acceptance fiasco, he became involved in an undercover prostitution sting and got arrested for that, and to add to insult to the mounting problems, people discovered he took money from a booster to play at the school. To put it frankly, Lamar had a rocky start at UNLV. He ended up transferring to Rhode Island (much closer to home), sitting out his first season and playing in the 97-98 season. He dominated and shortly after punched his ticket to league.
Although Odom had endured his hardships along the way, it appeared as believed Odom had made it. The Los Angeles Clippers drafted the young kid out of Queens in 1999 with the second overall pick. Odom made the all rookie first team.
He enjoyed stints with the Clippers (twice), Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, and much to the distaste of Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks. He has been successful, he has played a big role on two championship teams, won 6th Man of the Year in 2010-2011, and most importantly has now made millions of dollars playing hoops for an excess of 14 years.
Off the court, he has become an notable reality TV star, as part of the Kardashian clan, and most girls (until now of course) had considered him the tall funny man that loves eating candy, took care of his friends and gives Rob someone to horse around with. I liked thinking of Lamar in this light. But then, a couple of weeks ago, shit hit the fan. A report from TMZ, said that Lamar abused crack and had gone missing.
So now we are back to the question, what the hell is going on?
From what I could find, it unfortunately sounds like Lamar absolutely did lose it. RadarOnline, scored an interview with Lamar’s New York drugdealer (who demanded secrecy), and in the interview, the king ping brags about all the celebrities and politicians he sells to and parties with on a regular basis. He gives monetary figures as to what Lamar’s drug use consists of. He makes claims that over the last three years Lamar has done over $50,000 worth of cocaine which is borderline scary[3]. He also says he knows for a fact Lamar chooses to freebase smoke it rather than sniff it[4]. It just all seems so extreme. Especially because in all the movies and books I have read, rich people don’t smoke cocaine. They snort it, right?
The alleged drug use has yet to be denied by anyone in Odom’s camp, which is more than depressing and is now raising questions as to what the NBA is actually doing with their own drug testing policies. If players are able to go on radical cocaine binges and have been abusers for years, doesn't that say that the NBA front offices are gaffing on their duties to keep the league clean?
The drug culture of the late 70’s and early 80’s nearly ended in the league once upon a time. David Stern set up a new policy to help weed out the leagues reputation as a bunch of overpaid coke-heads. Stern's policy had players succumbing to random urine tests four times during the regular season, and twice during the off-season.
Stern set-up a rule that was stricter on what he called “Drugs of Abuse”[5], failing for any of these labeled drugs forced a ban from the league, which could be reversed at seasons end. This rule helped clean up the league drastically, banning notable players like Michael Ray Robinson and George Gervin before later reinstating them.
At its origin, the policies instated by Stern were always hilariously easy on marijuana, and it is no secret in NBA circles that players smoke weed all the time. There is a laundry list of players that have tested positively for grass, and Charles Barkley even went as far to say that coaches sometimes even asked certain players to keep smoking if they were playing well. Unlike the “Drugs of Abuse”, Stern made the first offenders of marijuana required to take a substances abuse course (slap of the wrist). A second offender was merely fined $10,000, and third offenders, so help them God, would receive a 5 game suspension, or a whopping 6% of the regular season. Clearly Stern feared that if he were to make the weed penalties strict they would be losing a lot of players.
The other problem that has resurrected throughout the years is the NBA’s spotty testing on PED’s. Every other major league in the US requires blood testing on it’s athletes, a testing that is much more efficient in testing for PED/HGH, while the NBA uses only urine samples. It’s a widely accepted theory that NBA players do not use PED’s because the preference body type of a basketball player has less to do with brute strength and bulkiness, and more with fluidity and athleticism. I have heard too many people brush off the fact that NBA players too might want to use PEDS.
The way look at it, being in strong in basketball is not a bad thing (think Barkley, Karl Malone, and DeJaun Blair) and those drugs also usually help athletes get back quicker and stronger following injuries. There are plenty of reasons to want to use PED’s if you are an NBA player[6].
To me there needs to be reform to the leagues drug policies. Chris Paul, the new players union rep. is said to have been already making strides into implementing a tougher PED test, and one that would include blood testing. This is a good thing. The number one thing the NBA should do is ensure it’s fans that they are not like baseball, where players are consistently forced to cheat to win. But it still begs the question how do you handle the recreational drugs?
If the league does not act, and more instances like Odom's happen, the NBA’s reputation will be right back to where it was before Stern took office. If they act to aggressively and stiffen the penalties too much, they could effectively compromise the competitiveness of the league if too many notable players fail the new set of rules. It’s a tricky situation. A rock and hard place if you will.
In my heart of hearts, I believe that Lamar is just a troubled soul that has for years felt depressed from everyone around him only wanting his money and not his true friendship. His story will later be a minute footnote in the realm of NBA consciousness, but if his drug sabbatical is the root for the league to get a better grasp on it’s players then so be it. I just hope that that would not bring the league back down to where it was popularity wise 10 years ago.
These are the things that keep me up at night. The season starts in 41 days.
Go Packers,
Andrew
[1]The fact that Nicki is from here and Lil Kim from Brooklyn only throws gasoline on their feud against each other. Coincidentally both are hooches.
[2]S/O Nicky Barnes!!!
[3]Actually its not even borderline scary, its just scary. That’s a shit ton of coke.
[4] In actuality, comparing the difference between smoking and sniffing coke is stupid. They are both bad for you. To me it just seems even trashier to smoke it rather then sniff it. I think I have watched Scarface one to many times though…
[5] Those are drugs like LSD, Cocaine, Heroin, and Speed.
[6] My personal opinion on NBA players using PED’s is I think most are clean. The whole Olympic basketball team was blood-tested prior to 2012 and that group of 14 superstars all passed, which leads me to think that they don’t see the need to use them. But who knows.
