Odom signs offer, $67mil

[CelticsLoyalist]

Clippers say that haven't recieved anything that proves this, yet. It is not expected that LAC will match such a large offer.

Click >>here<< for full story.

[BTriggs]

i think wanting Odom was a sick J/K by the clipers i think that they are going to let the Heat sign Odom he is a head case. I think he is not worth more the the MLE right now he has to prove him self. I think he could make a turn around but i do not know. he has 2 strikes aginst him with the NBAs drug policy. i think this is a huge risk for the heat. I think they just have to bite the bullet and suck, get a good draft pick and sign a FA next year. If they are stuck with Odom and he does not turn around then they are screwed big time. the clips will look good if they keep him or dont. they are turing around now that there owner is spending money.
Posted on Wed, Aug. 13, 2003

COMMENTARY
Odom gamble could cost Heat
JEFF MILLER
[e-mail]

You don't do this, not for Lamar Odom.

You don't throw $65 million at a player whose attitude so far has been worth 10 cents.

You don't commit for six years to a player who can't commit to being a professional.

You don't do something so concrete for a player capable of disappearing in a puff of smoke.

This isn't Elton Brand, who has given us no reason to question his character. This is Lamar Odom, who has given us every reason to do so.

Pat Riley desperately wants to turn around the Heat, and he just reminded us of the depth of that desperation. Odom has a mountain of ability, but all that talent teeters dangerously close to collapse. If you want a visual, picture Odom balancing on a basketball.

This might seem strange, questioning an attempted acquisition by the Heat during a summer when the team has added so little. When signing Samaki Walker is the news, your offseason has been the pits. Walker has averaged 5.7 points for his career yet still calls himself ''a scorer.'' On the plus side, when the Heat acquired him, he had a broken arm.

John Wallace? Loren Woods? Udonis Haslem? Yikes. Riley has to do something, right? Just anything, even if it's wrong? No way. You can't make mistakes with such large price tags in the cap-confining world of the NBA.

And hitching hope to a player like Odom has mistake warnings stamped on it in neon letters.

Word is Riley likes Odom a lot, that he has coveted him for a while. This is fine, if all you were getting were Odom, the player. On the court, he can be a 6-foot-10 riddle opponents struggle to solve because he handles the ball and passes like a player a foot shorter.

There is a lot to love about this guy's game. Just take this assessment made a few seasons ago: ``Lamar Odom gives the Clippers something they haven't had in a long time -- a reason. A reason to watch, a reason to care, a reason to consider this team more than schedule-filler.''

Those words were heartfelt, I know, because they were my words, written shortly into Odom's career, when he was producing the sorts of highlights not seen in Los Angeles since Magic Johnson no-looked his way into becoming a legend.

The problem with Odom is he remains a riddle off the court, too, as in why can't he figure out how seriously he has to take this profession? Odom twice has been suspended for violating the NBA's substance-abuse policy and has admitted he chose to ''experiment'' with marijuana.

During a game in the 2001-02 season, the Clippers presented 5,000 fans with Lamar Odom bobblehead dolls but couldn't supply one fan with Lamar Odom. The pot police had benched him, and there apparently wasn't enough time to change the promotion to Lamar Odom knucklehead dolls.

Add to this Odom's recent conduct, when he has done everything but lift his leg on the Clippers organization. In the past, his bashing would have been applauded, so terrible is owner Donald Sterling's history.

But Sterling has spent money this offseason in an apparent attempt to build the Clippers into something more than a punch line. If Odom still wants out, if he has soured that much on the losing, this is understandable, even commendable. But there are classier ways to handle the situation than calling the Clippers ``basketball hell.''

Odom still is only 23 and maybe he is maturing. (Much of his instability -- the three high schools attended, the two colleges, the firing of his agent before he was even drafted -- is ancient history.)

To be fair, most of us said and did stupid things in our early 20s. But Odom also once said, ''Now, I've grown up. I'm a man and I'm ready to play a man's game.'' He said this four years ago.

Just last week, he suggested he doesn't like the idea of having to prove himself again to a new coach, in the Clippers' case Mike Dunleavy. Well, Odom would have plenty of prove to Riley. This is a player who has averaged 13.1 and 14.6 points the past two seasons, during which he has missed more games (86) than he has played (78) because of injuries.

Even more, if Odom suddenly became a perfect citizen, are those the numbers of a $65 million player? For that money, shouldn't you be getting someone who statistically is superior to, say, Bonzi Wells, himself overpaid at $7.5 million a year?

Odom vs. Wells, based on average, was a push last season.

If he is healthy and he is right, Odom is much more versatile than Wells and most of the players in this league. But if he were healthy and right of late, the Clippers would have matched the Heat's offer sheet by now.

Sorry, but $65 million is just too much weight today for the entire package that is Lamar Odom.

If you're a Miami fan, you should be pulling for the Clippers. Because if the Heat wins this one and Odom doesn't change, that $65 million becomes even heavier in the future.