Lamar Odom's fighting for his life:

Celebrity

Fighting for his life: Lamar Odom’s past filled with personal tragedy

Way back in 1996, Lamar Odom walked into the gymnasium at Christ the King High School in Queens, N.Y. He was impossibly gangly back then. Impossibly talented too. The hype surrounding him was immense. On Wednesday, all these years later, Odom is reported to be fighting for his life in a Las Vegas hospital after he was found unresponsive at a legal brothel, his future fragile. It is the deepest depth yet for a guy who has seen too many already, his 14-year NBA career, including two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and a sixth Man of the Year award, spotted with drug suspensions and rehab visits and so, so much personal tragedy.

I just want to be Lamar Odom. Not anyone else.
Odom in 1996

His story was a paint-by-the-numbers of urban disaster. Father was a heroin addict. Mother died of cancer when he was 12. A grandmother, the unconquerable Mildred Mercer, would raise him in southside Jamaica, Queens, but truly it was basketball and all that promise that got him anywhere. If he were 5-10, not 6-10, no one believes he would have lasted long. Every time he fell, basketball picked him up. Eventually the basketball ends, but everything else remains. He always seemed to know that; he just didn’t know how to live with it. Inside a Vegas hospital Wednesday is that same spirited kid from Christ the King way back when, dreaming not so much of the big time or the best time, just a better time

A brother to me … It’s tough thinking about.

Luke Walton, a former Lakers teammate and current interim coach with the Golden State Warriors

Source Yahoo