"Like Job, with no psalms to follow"

Last evening the Lakers won their 15th NBA title in a dominating win over the Magic. Many speak of this title as Kobe’s first without Shaq, and although I think that’s overhyped (as he was spectacular in the first three titles), I get it. Others speak of it as Phil Jackson 10th ring as a coach, one more than Red Auerbach for the most ever. Truly a big deal but he was the best coach in the history of the game prior to this Series if you were to ask me. But, throughout these finals, I’ve been rooting for the Lakers for a different reason. I’ve been rooting for redemption. I’ve been rooting for second chances. I’ve been rooting for a lost Soul to be set free from the grasp of perceived mediocrity, pain, and despair. Let me elaborate.

Bad reputations are easy to get but are harder to shake than (insert your favorite STD to joke about here) after a trip cross-town to the home of the Highlanders. If you live in San Diego right now and are a friend of mine I assume you are shaking off a hangover and having a hard time waking up because of prescription pills and even had a harder time falling asleep. Do these friends of mine deserve this reputation. Absolutely. Do they deserve it to stick for life? Absolutely not….well, bad example, but I hope you get what I was going for….bad reputations stick and that sucks blah blah blah…

Lamar Odom (spirit animal:mantid-fly)is a 6’10 versatile forward for the Lakers and, as of today, a Champion, a World Champion. The road to this title was riddled with two many hardships and mistakes to dwell on here. Let me summarize as much as I can remember in one fell swoop….Heroine addict dad, Mother dead from colon cancer when he was twelve, took $5,600 at UNLV from a booster leaving in his wake a coach fired and the school on four years probation, multiple drug offenses/probations from the NBA, and a whole lot of talk about not living up to his potential and playing hard, stop. Deep breath. Above all this may have been the loss of his 6-month-old son Jayden to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 2006. Each game day Lamar takes the time pre game to write the words Cathy on each of the toes of his shoes for his mother, and on one of his ankles his writes Baby J, and on the other he writes Grandma. He does this for every single game he plays. Even the jersey number he wears (7) is an ode to his grandmother, it was her favorite number.

Lamar has the talent and physical attributes to truly be a perennial All Star, a hall of famer, and one of the 50 best basketball players of all time. It is a common perception throughout the league that he is somehow a waste of talent. Many wonder what if a man with the gifts that he possesses had the drive to win and will of Kobe Bryant. I, too, even wonder that....but that was not Lamar.

The Macrophenominal Pro Basketball Almanac says this about Odom and his journey. “The miscellany of talent and sentiment has produced the NBA’s most fatherless, sonless, friendless, teammate less, directionless, homeless being. He exist in a slideshow, a role player, a conundrum, an “almost”, a tempting flash of brilliance, a martyr so that other players can make All Star teams and receive MVP awards.” I like to believe perceptions like these may have changed in Florida last night. Odom’s stat line was impressive, he had 17 points and 10 rebounds and any and all late night Sunday basketball watchers know it was more impressive than those numbers elude.

Allow me to quote the M.P.B.A. one more time. The sentiment is dramatic but the point profound. “Odom’s story is a tale of begrudgingly strengthened shoulders. He has carried a lifetime full of limetimes on his back, not because he chose to, but because he was chosen to. He does not question his path, does not even recognize it as potholed and slippery. He simply remains dutiful and patient. Odom represents every one of us: flawed and good. His life has been a series of near misses, malignant bumps, breaths of mountain air followed by spoonfuls of dirt. He endures all that is possible for man to endure and faces every test so that others may thrive and live a less complicated life.”

Last night, on the eve of climbing a mountain many believed wasn’t able to be ascended Lamar refered to his patience. "Playing with Kobe, being coached by Phil Jackson, I knew the time would come when we would put a team together," Lamar said "The time came and it felt good”. Good mug.

I feel that Lamar’s journey is a journey of many of us. Expectations should be within us all and not lay upon us by outside forces. No one has the right to tell any one else what we are supposed to be. No one walks in our shoes and thus no one has the right to judge. We all just have to be patient, keep doing the right thing as often as humanly possible, and keep fighting the good fight no matter what life throws our way. Lamar did and look at him now.