The timing of their parting was difficult to peg down, but the partnership between the Mavs and Lamar Odom has seemed doomed for a while. When Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said Odom was testing his patience last month, it looked as though that patience was already gone. Here's what people around the league are saying in the wake of this morning's news that Odom will not play anymore this season for the Mavs:
- Brian Kamenetzky of ESPNLA.com (via Twitter) doesn't see Odom rejoining the Lakers.
- Mavs General Manager Donnie Nelson says that everyone from the locker room up to the front office wanted to see Odom succeed in Dallas, tweets Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram.
- Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com opines that Odom will go down as one of the biggest disgraces in Dallas sports history. MacMahon believes that Odom's departure could give the defending champs a much-needed morale boost as they enter the playoffs.
- Jeff Caplan of ESPNDallas.com tweets that Mavs players had little to say about the matter today, while Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd avoided the media entirely.
- Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News notes that Odom will continue to draw his salary even though he will not be playing. He was scheduled to make $8.9MM this season, though the lockout cut that down to about $7.16MM.
- The Lakers were going to try to trade both Odom and Pau Gasol right up until the March 15 deadline, but they knew that Odom wouldn't be able to handle the constant trade rumors, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com tweets.
- Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio wonders, via Twitter, whether Odom will ever play in the NBA again.
- Caplan believes it was a move the Mavs had to make, as Odom, who had an emotionally turbulent offseason, simply wasn't focused on basketball.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
April 10, 2012: MediaTakeOut.com just got wind of an EXPLOSIVE RUMOR – from one of the girlfriends of a Dallas Mavericks player. Word is that on Saturday night, after the Mavericks LOST to the Memphis Grizzlies Dallas superstar DIRK NOWITZKI and LAMAR ODOM got into an altercation.
Word in the locker room is that Dirk was unhappy with Lamar’s lack of focus and he confronted him, and when Lamar challenged Dirk back – it WAS ON. And get this . . . we hear that Dirk was GETTING THE BETTER of Lamar before teammates broke it up.
Two days after the altercation . . . Lamar got DROPPED!!!