Lamar Odom Signs to Spanish Basketball Club
Lamar Odom is getting another shot to play professional basketball again, this time in Spain.
Odom, the 34-year-old former NBA forward, was vocal about trying to get back into the league last year. Instead, he made more headlines about allegations of drug abuse, extramarital affairs and a pending divorce from reality television star Khloe Kardashian.
After publicly campaigning for a position on the Los Angeles Clippers team that he was released from seven months ago, it seems that Odom will take his talents overseas instead.
The forward signed a two-month deal with the Spanish team Laboral Kutxa to close out the 2013-2014 basketball season, ESPN reports.
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Odom's deal comes with an option to play for the Spanish club for an additional year. Josean Querejeta, the president of Laboral Kutxa, spoke about his reasoning for acquiring Odom.
"We're very happy to have signed a very important player who has had a long and fruitful career in the NBA,'' Querejeta said in a statement to ESPN. "We've worked very hard over the last couple of days to make this happen. We felt we needed a boost and had to break the collective cloud that has been hanging over us over the last while so we could get back to winning."
Odom's new team is ranked ninth in the 18-team Spanish league and last in its Euroleague group. He could make his debut on Saturday, according to reports.
Despite the controversy surrounding Odom last year, Los Angeles Clippers' coach Doc Rivers has publicly said that the basketball player needs another shot in the NBA and even considered signing him.
"I don't know what our plans are yet. I like Lamar," Rivers told the Los Angeles Times late last year. "I want him to be in the NBA. And if things go right, here."
Rivers has insisted that he will still be happy for Odom no matter where he ends up as long as it is playing basketball.
"Having said that, I just want him to do well at the end. Obviously if he does well, we'd like for it to be for us," Rivers previously told the LA Times. "But let's say he doesn't come here, and he does well in the NBA, I'd be just as happy, honestly. I look at a guy, and I think he's a good guy, and he needs another shot."
