Following news of the death of Kobe Bryant, many in the NBA community and all around the world were sharing their best memories, moments, and quotes by the superstar.
Among them was his former teammate Lamar Odom, who played for the Lakers from 2008-2013. In a heartfelt Instagram message, he poured out his feelings of grief in the aftermath of the Kobe crash.
These picture are just the tip of the iceberg of our relationship. He taught me so many things in life that were necessary on and off the court. On the court he taught me how to carve out defenses and how to take my time. How to make winning my ultimate goal. Off the court he taught me to sign my own checks lol. Of course anyone who knows my story knows I’ve suffered a lot of loss but the only loss I can compare this to is when I lost my son. Even though our relationship wasn’t father/son, it was more like him being a teacher and me being his brother. I’m glad I got to be the ying to your yang as far as the locker room was concerned. It was my pleasure. I couldn’t even catch my breath today when I heard this news. I just knew if he was in a helicopter crash he would have been the one to survive. Somehow he would have jumped out and landed on his feet. I’m sitting here thinking about when we would be in practice scrimmaging and you would start the jump ball off with elbowing Sasha in the chest.
Like dude it’s 10:30 in the morning lol. You think watching him play was crazy, you gotta think in practice if you scored like 8-9 buckets throughout the practice you had a great practice. I’ve seen him knock off 13-14 in a row in practice!!!! I’m still waiting for the media to come out and say wrong report. No way God took my brother this early. I know I been through my own stuff in life with using drugs and not being good to myself. When I went through that Coma situation if God would have came to me and said we would take me and spare Kobe I would have rather that happened. In honor of my brother I’m up at 4am tomorrow to get to the gym! Gigi gone give you buckets!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7zOpt5A3Nw
As Odom states in the post, he has dealt with his fair share of struggles in the past. Drug addictions have led to some near-death experiences for the former Laker, and it seems Kobe’s mentorship helped lead him through them all.
No doubt, his death is hitting us all hard, but especially for those closest to him. Lamar seems to be among those most impacted by his passing.
