Playing the Field: Lamar Odom is a mess here, not there
Thankfully there is still separation between sports and reality TV. Know why that’s still true despite the Manti Te’o saga, Lance Armstrong on Oprah and Nick Cannon hosting the NBA dunk contest?
Because Lamar Odom remains the most normal person on any of the Kardashian’s 20 different spin-off shows. Whenever he appears (my wife watches the show … that’s the excuse I’m using … yup, that’s the excuse), a giant brush of humbleness and calmness clobbers the giant head of Khloe. No, Odom is not on the show all that much, but when he is on there is a change in everyone’s demeanor. He is truly the steady rock that holds the Kardashian-Jenner clan together. In the reality TV world, Odom has his sh** together.
In the sports world? Entirely different story. Compared with his pro sports peers, Odom is an IHOP garbage-disposal at 4 a.m. mess.
He is such a diva that he can only play in Los Angeles to maintain a clear head. When he played in Dallas last year, he flat-out quit on the Mavericks and, in turn, his teammates were ecstatic about it. Today, the NY Post wrote that Odom fell asleep on a courthouse bench in New York while his children’s custody war was being waged.
“Excuse me, are you OK?” a court officer asked the slumping Odom. “I need you to sit up.”
The Clippers slug was sleeping for 20 minutes, according to the Post. He blamed it on jet-lag and “the flu.”
While this was going on, the two sides in the custody case were talking over crucial matters like whether or not the kids could appear on two separate reality showS (PLURAL). Because, of course, the mother of these kids, Liza Morales, appears on her own reality show, “Starter Wives.”
Head meet ball
In the age of concussions, we can still laugh at stuff like this, right? It’s our obligation as a society, right?
The second best part of these ball-to-head videos is always the reaction of the person who threw or kicked the ball. You always get that classic, “uh, Hoah!” chuckle right after contact. Like it’s hilarious for .2 seconds and then you realize that you’re a complete a**hole. It’s OK, we’ve all been there.
Matt Burke is sports editor and a columnist at Metro Boston. Follow him on Twitter @BurkeMetroBOS
