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LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 31: Lamar Odom #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts after a score from the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center on March 31, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Ashort clip from a 2022 interview of former Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom is currently doing the rounds on social media. Because, to the cynical mind, the sentiment within it remains true today.
In an October 2022 appearance on Club Shay Shay, the podcast hosted by former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, Odom talked at length on a variety of topics, mostly concerning his own personal journey. Sitting on a weirdly-shaped squeaky half-couch in an echoey room in front of a crackling fire, Odom at one point rises above the excessive background noise to deliver an impassioned sermon about what he believes is wrong with NBA basketball today.
“Let me tell you how stupid NBA teams are”, Odom began. “They give the ball to their best player. They put that played in a pick-and-roll. That player – most of the time, he handles the ball almost till the shot clock is at the end. Then he’s passing it to a player that’s not as good as him, and [who] has to make or take a shot in less time than he had the ball.”
“Mostly, all NBA offences are like that.”
Odom’s Out-Of-Date Criticisms
Odom played in the NBA from 1999 to 2012, and won two championships with the Lakers in that time. The abrupt end to his career, however, saw his time in the NBA finish slightly earlier than it might have done. And a result, he missed out on seeing first-hand the rise of Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors, and the true advent of the pace-and-space revolution.
Because of that, if it seems as though Odom is describing a different brand of basketball to what the NBA looks like today, it is because he is. There was a time – for example, the late 1990s, when teams stocked up on large underskilled players specifically to combat Shaquille O’Neal – when rosters were more about the ball-dominance of the backcourt. Point guards were modelled like Steve Francis, walking the ball over halfcourt and looking for their own shot as the first, second and third options. “Spacing” meant curling Larry Hughes around a down screen and attempting a fadeaway 20 footer. The NBA had not covered its courts with cameras and stuffed its front offices with mathematics experts; efficiency had not yet ruled the day.
Buoyed by the shooting and movement of Curry – a player who changed the way the game is played, and whose legacy will outlast his own career – the NBA today is more dynamic, faster, and much-better spaced. Nigh-on everyone has offensive skill now, and near-enough everyone can do something with the ball in their hands when facing the basket. Gone are the days of Allen Iverson dribbling for 20 seconds and then throwing the ball to Marcus Camby in hopes of a miracle. This is the modern NBA, with diversified playbooks, a laser focus on offensive efficiency, and far more complex defensive schemes that need multiple options to overcome.
How Good He Might Have Beem
The pick-and-roll is also the most fundamental basketball play out there, one designed to give the ball-handler multiple options to work with, depending on how the defense counters it. The roller should only receive the ball if they are open; if they are not, the handler – who hopefully achieved separation from his defender from the pick – has other options, including the reset. It is a disservice to therefore claim that the NBA is all about low-percentage pick-and-roll options. It never was true, and it really is not true now.
The cruel irony is that as a 6’10 playmaking forward, Odom would have been ideal for the modern game, and probably even better than he already was.
Across 961 career regular season games, Odom recorded averages of 13.3 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per contest. He spent the vast majority of his career in Los Angeles, including seven seasons of his middle career with the Lakers, four to begin his career with the Clippers and one more at the end to bookend it, as well as spending a year with each of the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks and three months with the New York Knicks.
Odom’s career shut down unexpectedly early due to a combination of injury and a worsening drug addiction, one which culminated in a widely-reported incident in 2015 when he suffered a series of heart attacks and strokes after falling unconscious at a legal brothel in Nevada. He has subsequently achieved sobriety, something he discussed on his Club Shay Shay appearance, and has been involved in a host of different things in retirement, ranging from cryptocurrency to boxing.
The way he has turned his life around is heartwarming to see, and should be as publicized as his struggles were. He is still about NBA offenses, though.
Mark Deeks I am continuously intrigued by the esoterica and minutiae of all the aspects of building a basketball team. I want to understand how to build the best basketball teams possible. No, I don’t know why, either. More about Mark Deeks
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