Some of the unsung heroes in Los Angeles Lakers franchise history are the players who accepted their role and maximized it to their full potential. L.A not only has some of the greatest players ever, but some of the best sixth-men ever in a guy like former forward Lamar Odom.
After being acquired as a part of the Shaquille O’Neal trade from the Miami Heat in 2004, the Lakers had developed and found one of the big missing pieces for a championship which eventually resulted in back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010 alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.
After his professional basketball tenure, Odom found himself at a low point in his life financially and made the difficult decision to auction his Laker championship rings in order to gain some sustainability for himself at that moment and going forward.
In the first episode of Odom’s new ‘On The Lo’ podcast, he tells the story of how he got his championship rings back from a fan after he put them up for auction:
“To make a long story short, there was a time I came up out of the coma, I checked my account and my shit was at like double zero and I panicked a little bit. I mean, I’m Lammy, I’m the first black Kardashian, people always used to seeing me up. Got a lot of friends in really high places and I wish I would have used them but I just came out of the coma and my mind wasn’t really in the right place. I put (the rings) up for auction. It hurt me even just to say that. So, whatever, I put them up, put the money in my pocket, put it to use. Made some use of it. I think that money’s even kind of helped me get back here but it was embarrassing for me to do that. Some years go by and I happen to make my way back to LA. I get in touch with the Lakers, go to a Laker game and they helped me out with some good tickets. I get there and see a guy who used to sit right by us. Let’s call him Franz for right now. My man Franz. He says ‘Yo, Lamar, I bought your rings.’ I said ‘Oh, shit.’ Because at this point, I’m still embarrassed…But he was like ‘Yeah, I have your rings.’ So, after getting over that embarrassment, he’s like ‘Just come pick ‘em up.’ I pulled up on him and he gave me my shit back for nothing.”
During his playing career, Odom was a fan-favorite on and off the court for the Purple and Gold. The Lakers faithful can safely conclude that those two championships do not happen without the two-way ability of Odom.
Seeing the work and knowing all that Odom means to the Lakers franchise, makes it wholesome for the two-time champion to get his rings back from a good samaritan fan, who deserves a ton of credit himself for getting the rings back to Lamar.
Walker appreciative of advice received from Gasol
Another key member of those 2009 and 2010 championship teams was Gasol, who remains very involved with the Lakers organization to this day.
Gasol attended a recent Lakers practice and spoke to the team. It was there that he saw a familiar face in Lonnie Walker IV, who was a former teammate on the San Antonio Spurs.
Walker spoke about the advice he received from Gasol while dealing with an injury during his rookie season and how appreciative he was of it at that time.
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