Lamar Odom

<p>Born in South Jamaica, Queens, New York, on November 6, 1979, Lamar Odom endured profound childhood adversity, losing his mother to colon cancer at age twelve and being raised by his grandmother. An exceptional high school basketball prodigy at Christ the King Regional High School and St. Thomas Aquinas, he played college basketball for the University of Rhode Island, famously hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer to capture the 1999 Atlantic 10 tournament championship.</p><p>Selected fourth overall in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, Odom made an immediate splash with his unique 6-foot-10 skill set—possessing the ball-handling and court vision of a point guard with the rebounding prowess of a power forward. After a transformative season with the Miami Heat in 2003–04, Odom was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in the blockbuster Shaquille O'Neal trade.</p><p>In Los Angeles, Odom became an indispensable cornerstone of Phil Jackson's triangle offense alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. Sacrificing his starting role for the good of the team, Odom anchored the Lakers' bench unit, helping propel the franchise to back-to-back NBA Championships in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, he became the first Laker in franchise history to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award. Winning Olympic bronze in 2004 and FIBA World Championship gold in 2010 with Team USA, Odom's selfless versatility revolutionized the modern NBA "point forward" archetype.</p>