Jul 31 2009
Lamar Odom signs a reported 4 year 33 million dollar deal with Lakers
We all heard about it yesterday but it just happened minutes ago. Lamar Odom has officially signed a 4 year 33 million dollar contract with the Lakers.
Odom said that he’s back were he wants to be and wants to end his career as a Laker and that he is proud to be a Laker.
One reporter asked Odom what was with all of the confusion with him resigning with the Lakers to which Odom replied that it was not confusion but just negotiations.
He said the recruitment process in Miami was aggressive in getting him to join them. Dwayne Wade publicly let it be known that he wanted Odom with him as a Miami Heat. Pat Riley even met up with Odom this week. “They wanted me to come back. It was close, but the situation I got here is too strong” Odom said.
Early in July, the Lakers presented two offers to Odom. One was a four-year deal for $9 million a season, worth up to $36 million, but only three years and $27 million was guaranteed, with the Lakers’ buyout in the fourth year worth $3 million. The other offer was a three-year, $30-million deal that would have paid Odom $10 million a season.
“If I would have heard that one, I think I would have jumped on that,” Odom said Thursday. “I don’t remember hearing that one.”
When Odom and his agent didn’t respond quickly enough, Buss pulled the deals off the table. Odom signed his contract for the next 4 years.
Laker fans are not the only ones happy that Odom is staying in L.A.
Odom got calls and text messages from Lakers teammates Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Luke Walton.
