Kobe Bryant Angered Over Lamar Odom Trade: 'I Don't Like it'
Los Angeles Lakers star shooting guard Kobe Bryant is not happy with fellow Laker Lamar Odom’s trade to the Dallas Mavericks.
"To be honest with you, I don't like it," Bryant told the Agence France-Presse.
The trade was announced late Sunday afternoon.
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"It's tough to lose Lamar," Bryant said to the AFP. "Pau (Gasol) is still here, and we're all thankful for that. It's hard when you've been through so many battles with players to just see them go somewhere else. It's tough."
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is ready to welcome Odom.
“He's a terrific basketball player,'' Carlisle told Dallas news in a post practice interview on Monday. "Lamar Odom is a guy we have great respect for as a person and as an all-around player in this league. We feel he's going to add so many different dimensions for us - length, play-making, scoring, experience, championship experience.”
Lamar Odom, last year’s winner of the NBA sixth-man award, and Gasol were named in a trade offer that would have brought New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul to the Lakers. The deal never went through.
"You're talking about the sixth man of the year last year," Bryant said to the AFP. "He played lights-out. He had his best season last year, clearly wasn't a distraction, played his butt off. I don't get where that comes from."
Laker Pau Gasol is also unhappy with the Odom trade, but calls it business.
"I understand this is a business, and it's become more of a business than a sport nowadays," Pau Gasol said in a statement. "It hasn't been extremely easy to be calm and quiet and not think about the different possibilities. But I'm still here, and I'm thankful for that."
Odom averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and three assists last season. He is also married to reality star Khloe Kardashian and stars on E! Channel’s “Khloe and Lamar.”
