The December 2011 acquisition of Lamar Odom was initially heralded as a masterstroke by the Dallas Mavericks' front office. After winning back-to-back championships and then securing the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award with the Los Angeles Lakers, Odom’s limited output in Dallas led to a bitter feud with owner Mark Cuban, who once claimed he did not get his money’s worth from the player.
And while the now 46-year-old once wanted to wash the locker room with the Mavericks owner, Odom now appears more willing to move on.
“Man this white man got it in his heart to get his point across. He needs to kick me in my shin. You know, Mark Cuban time has passed. I forgive you. But if it wasn’t for your cousin sitting right next to you right here, I was going to put him through the locker and wash the lockers with him. Yo, I was going to wash the locker room with him,” he explained on the Cousins podcast, per HoopsHype.
Odom had come to Dallas after a stellar season during which he averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 3.0 assists. He was flipped to Dallas for essentially nothing more than an $8.9 million trade exception and a future first-round pick.
However, the transaction quickly dissolved into a basketball and public relations disaster. Dealing with personal issues including the previous loss of his infant son and drug use, Odom’s on-court production cratered to career lows of 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game while shooting an abysmal 35.2% from the floor. Cuban reportedly subjected Odom to relentless heckling from his courtside seats, openly criticizing his conditioning and branding him a “waste of money.”
Odom's career understandably never took off again. He was shipped to the Los Angeles Clippers the following season as part of a four-team deal. Odom averaged four points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in the 2012-13 campaign before stints in Spain and China.
