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In and out, three years, 80 million lol
Odom’s mind on returning to Lakers next season
By Beth Harris
Lamar Odom says he wants to return to the Los Angeles Lakers, and he hopes the team will keep both him and Trevor Ariza.
Odom and Ariza become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
“You want to keep the team together,” Odom said. “We just won a championship, you don’t want to see one piece not there. Hopefully we can keep everybody here.”
Odom met with coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak during an individual 20-minute exit interview Thursday.
“Hopefully, it won’t take that long,” he said, joking about upcoming contract negotiations. “In and out, three years, 80 million.”
In and out, three years, 80 million lol
Goddamn I hope he comes back. If some asshole team like Detroit or Portland throws an ass load of money at Trevor that could be the difference for Lamar, we just can't let Trevor go.
it will be very hard to see odom take a pay cut in his prime, after winning a championship, and possibly being the missing piece for another team to win a championship. he actually deserves a small raise but instead will have to take a drastic paycut to stay with the lakers, assuming the lakers choose to focus on ariza. taking $5-6 million less over a contract length of 3-4 years would be pretty drastic. hard to throw away $15-20 million especially if another possible contending team offers him more than what he made this year, which was around $11 million.
It's official.
Ariza will be signed for $6mil/yr for 5 years and Odom will get a lifetime unlimited supply of candies. Odom is more than happy to accept and states that he is determined to stay and find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Kobe, being the great human being that he is, is willing to take a 10 mil paycut in order to keep this team together. Andrew Bynum met with team owner Jerry Buss and had a heart to heart discussion over his salary. He said he will give back the contract money owed to him in order for this team to keep Odom and Ariza.
"I didn't play well in the playoffs, and not especially when my team needed me the most." Bynum said. "To be paid that much in my future contract is frankly, outright robbery. My mom taught me better than that. She taught me that stealing is wrong, and afterall, mother knows best. I don't deserve that massive contract given my performance. That is why I am willing to give back the money so that more deserving people (Odom and Aria) can be resigned." Bynum added, "that's just who I am and how I was raised. To do what's right, is hard. I am proud of myself for taking one for the team. I know the sacrifices I made today will pay off in the distant future, not only for myself but for the team as well."
Source: http://spurstalk.com/forums/forumdis...daysprune=&f=3
Well there you have it. Odom and Ariza are going nowhere and this core will make their push for a repeat next year.
Sign them all! The rest of the West is coming after ya.
sounds good with me.
Odom faces tough choice: Stay or get bigger payday
Lamar Odom wants to maintain his Lakers lifestyle with a new contract, but he does want to get paid.
Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
EL SEGUNDO – There was Lamar Odom, discussing his hopes of re-signing with the Lakers, in the middle of the season:
"I feel like winning is the cure to all that."
Here was Lamar Odom, having won, speaking Thursday:
"Three years, $80 million."
Odom was just jesting, drawing big laughs from reporters in suggesting those were the terms he threw at Coach Phil Jackson and GM Mitch Kupchak in their just-completed season-ending meeting.
Odom was his typical entertaining self, even though he said he was "tired as " from wild ride that the past several days have been since the Lakers won the NBA championship Sunday night in Orlando.
He needed to get geared back up again for the "official" team party Thursday night at Club Nokia near Staples Center.
This is how entertaining Odom was: Somehow, his answer to the question as to what sense he got from Jackson and Kupchak about his upcoming free-agent process free-flowed from him needing to stay in good physical condition to a hilarious commentary on his personal attractiveness, which was somehow a clear indication that the Lakers intend to re-sign him.
Here's Odom's answer to the question:
"They just want me to stay in shape. They know I'm a socialite. We won a championship, and I'm in my prime. I'm 29. I'm decent-looking. And when we go out, I'm well-received, you know what I'm saying?
"So they want me to take care of myself and sleep correctly and stay in the weight room and stay strong. So that's a good sign. That means they want me back."
He's a special dude, this L.O. No doubt about it.
Although he has not become the All-Star everyone expected, Odom's personality is a uniting force. That is something that will be hard to quantify salary-wise for a Lakers brass that knows Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum can both be All-Stars playing ahead of him.
So it remains to be seen, largely because the Lakers don't know how much other clubs will bid for Odom and Trevor Ariza. Yet even Bynum, whose path to those coveted stretch-run minutes in games could remain blocked if Odom returns and who regrets not having gotten much opportunity to mesh his game with Gasol's, is hopeful the Lakers can re-sign everyone.
Bynum's logic is that Gasol can play a little less to get him and Odom enough court time if they're all back together. Bynum also believes he can earn some late-game minutes over Odom — a touchy subject for him at times this season — if he's simply healthy and regains his explosiveness with a stronger base.
It would have been interesting for the Lakers had they not extended Bynum's contract on Oct. 30 and were now juggling how much to pay both Bynum and Odom. As it stands, Bynum got his and — make no mistake, despite his local allegiance — Odom now wants his "as my time winds down in the league."
"It's always difficult, especially in the economic time that we're in right now, somebody offering you so much money to play basketball, do something you love, for you not to take it," Odom said.
"At the end of the day I've just got to make the decision that's best for my family. Not so much myself, for my family, because right now at this point in my career … everything I do now is for my kids and their kids."
Odom said someone else offering him a starting gig, which he initially coveted this season with the Lakers, is beside the point.
"That doesn't make a difference," he said. "I'm comfortable in my own skin."
How comfy is that skin now? Let Odom describe his post-championship existence, even the everyday hum-drum stuff.
"Walk into a restaurant, everyone stands up and starts to clap," he said. "Walk into the supermarket, everyone starts clapping. It's like 200 people in the supermarket clapping. It's crazy."
Odom always has loved this self-described life of a "rock star" with the Lakers, which now heads all the way to the top of the charts with a championship won. (How big are the Lakers? Barack Obama called and talked to Jackson on Thursday about a variety of subjects, Lakers spokesman John Black said, besides the team trying to schedule a trip to the White House before next season.)
Not only will the Lakers have a decision to make on how much they want to pay a very good player who is the sort to send each of his teammates a special honorary bag of Crown Royal XR whiskey to celebrate the le, the life of the party will have to decide for himself.
How much money is enough to get him to leave this great party?
Lamar Odom: Exit Interview
Mike Trudell
Being asked to change his role more so than any other Laker despite being in a contract year didn’t limit the production of Lamar Odom in a terrific 2008-09, who ultimately played a major role in L.A.’s championship.
Though Odom ended up starting 32 games when Andrew Bynum went down with a torn MCL midway through the season, Odom primarily served as the most effective and versatile bench player in the league, giving L.A. a marked advantage with matchups regardless of which opponent lined up against the purple and gold.
Odom’s numbers didn’t tell the true story of his contribution, but were impressive nonetheless. In the regular season, Odom averaged 11.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.99 steals and 1.26 blocks on 49.2 percent from the field in 29.7 minutes. In the postseason, Odom upped his averages to 12.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.70 steals and 1.35 blocks in 32.0 minutes, while improving his three-point shooting percentage from 32 percent in the regular season to a team-high 51.4 percent in the playoffs, including his back-to-back threes in the third quarter of Game 5 of the Finals that cut Orlando’s comeback attempt.
Of course, much of the discussion in Odom’s exit interview dealt with his pending free agency. Here’s a summary:
- Odom began by saying that his exit interview with Mitch Kupchak and Phil Jackson went well, and didn’t have much to do with basketball. He said that he hoped his contract negotations would go in similar fashion, and take no longer than 20 minutes. His mind is on returning to the Lakers, be he acknowledged that he’ll just have to wait and see how negotiations go.
- Lamar said felt good about his game: “I did my job this year - come off the bench, do whatever it takes. If I had to play well, I played well, when we had to win, we won.”
- He said: “The best thing about winning a championship is you feel like you can win another one.”
- When asked what he might do if it comes down to more money somewhere else vs. less to stay in L.A.: “It’s always difficult … But at the end of the day I have to make the decision that’s best for my family. Not so much for myself but for my family. I own a home, own a car, everything I do now is for my kids.”
- Odom remains fatigued in general but has really enjoyed the outpouring of support from Lakers fans: “I’m still emotional right now. I’m tired as . One of the reasons I’m tired is probably because I’m so emotional. We accomplished a lot … And the parade, to be going through what we’re going to. It’s crazy. You go to a restaurant everyone stands up. You go to the super market and everyone’s clapping. It’s crazy.”
- Going to another team and starting doesn’t make a difference to Odom, who said he “Won my first championship coming off the bench.”
- On what sense he got from talking to Phil and Mitch: “We hardly talked about basketball. That’s a good sign. We took care of what we needed to on the court. They just wanted me to stay in shape.”
- And the funniest quote of the exit interviews so far: “I’m decent looking and when we go out, I’m well received. You know. They want me to take care of myself and sleep correctly, stay in the weight room. That means they want me back.” To translate, apparently Mitch and Phil were more concerned that Odom maintains his basketball shape this offseason than anything.
- Odom got his teammates a gift but didn’t want to elaborate on what it was other than explaining it was a beverage of sorts.
- He said that next season, with this Lakers roster, he expects to play more point guard and more small forward, a nod to the fact that Andrew Bynum will surely play more minutes.
- When asked about his improved three-point shooting, Odom said this: “Every time I work myself out or a big man work out I feel like I can get better at the game, and this year I shot the ball a lot better from three.” In the playoffs, anyway, that was very true.
- He said his biggest contribution was providing energy for the team: “Getting them revved up and ready to play defense. When I get going, the guys feed off it.”
- On keeping him and Trevor: “I don’t know how the books look. It’s important, we want to keep the team together. We just won a championship. You don’t want to see one piece not there if you can help it, but it’s the business.”
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