Everyone knew this was coming, but no
one expected this.
The champagne hasn't even dried off yet
and the Lakers are in the midst of losing another key player in Lamar
Odom.
If a player wants to maximize their
financial opportunities after a championship, can we really blame
them? In the off-season, it's all about taking care of business.
However, when championship rings are
more important and an agent disregards this desire, it's a clearly
unfortunate situation. As we have all probably heard, the initial
problem started with Trevor Ariza's agent attempting to make
something out of nothing. The Lakers were thinking the mid-level
exception, but his agent was commanding seven to nine million
dollars. What was the end result? Ariza heading to the Houston
Rockets for the mid-level exception deal.
Eureka! He obviously failed.
Ariza wanted to stay in Los Angeles.
The mid-level exception deal was there. Another championship ring was
in his sights. Everything he wanted was on the table, yet his agent
played hardball in hopes of striking it rich. While Ariza will
definitely have more individual opportunities in Houston, there's no
place like home...
After everything that transpired with
the departure of Ariza, it certainly looks like Lamar Odom's
situation will follow the same route. With reports that he wants to
remain in Los Angeles, his agent is pushing him to move back to the
Miami HEAT since they are offering more years in the proposed
contract. While the financial situation is quite confusing with the
state taxes, it looks like he will receive the same amount of money.
At this point, hopefully it will and should come down to what Lamar
Odom wants in this stage of his career.
What can Odom learn from Ariza?
Whatever his agent advises should be taken with a grain of salt. As
the saying should go, the agent works for Lamar Odom. Lamar
Odom doesn't work for the agent.
All things aside, it should be
interesting as Odom will reportedly make his decision this week. Stay
tuned!