New York State of Mind

Anomaly

Defense first

"Young, early 80's throwing rocks at the crazy lady..."

Nas - Street Dreams

When I first heard of Lamar Odom, I was very impressed at what I had read. So when I saw the left handed, 6'10" point guard, from South Side Jamaica, Queens...my greatest fear had come to fruition. The stage was set, as my Temple University Owls played against the Rams of Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 Championship game. Much to Coach Chaney's dismay the game's balance was the hands of Odom with a few seconds left on the game clock. To make my story of agony brief, he put up a shot from the arc that not only ended Temple's championship run...it also beat the buzzer, and the rest is history. 

When it was a game

The aftermath of that 3-point shot, resulted in Lamar entering the NBA draft that summer, and becoming the 4th overall pick for the Los Angeles Clippers. It no secret that as a native of Philadelphia I was raised a fan of the 76ers. However, because of where I grew up, I met Sharia Bryant older sister of Kobe, and because of that fact, I cheer for the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the Philadelphia 76ers. 

Having explained that...as a journalist, I attend as many Laker games as I can when they travel east. Last Wednesday, they were in Philly, and I spoke with Odom, and Stephen A. Smith about New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress. After our conversation, I decided that I would interview Lamar before the next game against the Washington Wizards.

I drove to DC with my fellow writers Jeff Young, and Michael Tillery. Jeff and I, after walking over to the visitor's locker room, spoke with Derek Fisher first, and then Lamar Odom.

Here is the score on my chat with the man they call LO:

Talk to me about your role on this team:

"I just bring my energy off the bench. My role is to fill any position that we need...ball handling, rebounding, I come off the bench...score a couple of buckets, and try to get people involved. Basically it's my job to play basketball the right way every night."

On the possibility of a starting role:

"That's not really my focus. My focus is to...my job is to basically do what I'm asked, you know what I'm saying...and I just leave it at that, and put my head in the right place mentally, so whatever they ask of me, I can fulfill that. Whether it's coming off the bench or starting...at the end of the day it's basketball. You know what I'm saying, when you come off the bench of course you don't get to play as much, but you never know. Injuries, streaks...as far as people playing good or bad, you know it's a long season...minutes, whatever may be, I just try to stay prepared. You know keep my mind, and my body prepared so when the time does come, I can play my role, do what I do."

Talk about the college game when you were in school and what it is now:

"There was a transition in the college game in the early 90's until now. The transition was that guys started to leave a lot earlier. You know when I was coming up, watching the [NBA] draft... '92 draft, '93...even the guys like Big Dog, Grant Hill, stayed like 3-years. Now guys...the guys that are really good, are going like basically 1 [year] and done. So you see a lot of teams dominating, like all the way through the season, like you can pick who is going to be in the Final Four, and Sweet 16 a lot easier, because the teams that are able to keep players there, and keep really good players there of course, are going to be good. When I say keep them there I just mean, you're a veteran right now if you're a junior in college. I think when [Kevin] Garnett went to the league, and the whole AAU situation, and the high school age limit, all that kind of changed college in general. But I think the college game is a necessity for a lot of the kids to come to the NBA, not for basketball, but for the off the court prep that it gives you. I spent two years in college, and played 1, and I miss it to this day. It's nothing like it...there are people that I know...I bump into journalist, to lawyers...it was probably the most incredible time I've had in my life. You got to do what you love on a national stage, but yet the off court scene still had an innocence to it. This is business, you know what I'm saying...even though we love to do it, but a lot of what we do is based upon economics and politics...like any other job."

You were highly touted as a high school student, what are your thoughts in looking back?

"I've been playing basketball against Ron Artest...I'm only 28, 29-years old...I've been playing basketball against Ron Artest and Elton Brand for like 15-years. You know what I'm saying...more than that really, since like 12, or 13-years old. So to grow up with dudes like that and to get to this level and still play against them...and still be with them...for the whole borough of Queens that's special. I went to Christ the King with Chamique [Holdsclaw] and Sue Bird, and that New York City basketball tradition...I'm trying to hold it down."

Photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images - NBA