After the L.A. Lakers lost Game 1 of their series against the New Orleans Hornets, the Los Angeles Times' Bill Plaschke opined in wonderful detail about how Lamar Odom's public marriage with Khloe Kardashian, which includes a new reality show aptly titled Khloe & Lamar, has ruined Odom as a man, or at least a basketball player.
Reality Is, Public Airing Of Lamar Odom’s Personal Life Likely Irrelevant To Lakers’ Performance
In the show, which I have not watched because I value my time and enjoy my sanity, Plaschke alleges that Odom is emasculated by a battle axe of a wife and a goofball brother-in-law. This, Plaschke argues, could have led to Odom’s bad Sunday night performance. No, really.
From Plaschke’s column:
One of the show’s themes, even from the arrangement of names in the title, is that the Kardashian women are powerful enough to even push around an NBA star. I’m wondering how Odom can watch or hear about himself portrayed in this manner, then go out and easily become the aggressor on the basketball court.
On Wednesday night against the Hornets, Odom had 16 points (among Lakers, behind only Andrew Bynum) and seven rebounds (in the game, behind only Bynum) in 28 minutes, a great performance that L.A. wouldn't have survived without. In the game, Odom regularly pushed the tempo on the break and played solid defense, helping hold Carl Landry to rough night and availing himself well when he was switched onto Chris Paul in the halfcourt.
As it turns out, everyone has issues to deal with in their personal lives. Most if not all marriages have strains and challenges. No one is always 100 percent happy, or comfortable. People deal. Lamar Odom has dealt with real stuff, like losing an infant son, like growing up in a drug- and crime-addled neighborhood, like getting past his own drug issues that threatened to derail his career. That’s real stuff Lamar has overcome. And you think a reality show none of his teammates, coaches or opponents watches -- one in which a woman gets her way, which totally never happens to anyone else, and in which a jackwagon be jackwagonning -- is going to turn him into a headcase? Please.
The well’s dry, bub. Try again.
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