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Reality: Lamar Odom admits father was heroin addict

Portland Trail Blazers v Los Angeles Lakers

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 07: Portrait of Lamar Odum #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers before the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Staples Center on November 7, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

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If anyone asks, you’re saying didn’t watch Khloe & Lamar Sunday. There was Boston and Miami in the NBA and the Masters and you don’t watch that crap anyway.

If you secretly watched it, we won’t tell anyone. We won’t tell anyone you ate chocolate covered strawberries while you watched it, either.

But in case you did miss it, there was some serious stuff amongst the fluff. The Sporting News explains.

Lakers forward Lamar Odom, during the debut episode of his new reality show, ‘Khloe and Lamar’, reveals that his estranged father, Joe, is a heroin addict.

“I’m not asking him to be a father,” Odom says on the show. “I’m asking him to act like you are my father.”

In the episode, Joe surprises Khloe Kardashian, Lamar’s wife, at a book signing. Khloe encourages her husband and his father for form a closer relationship, but Joe later asks his son for money.

“Give me a couple dollars, man, I’m wiped out,” Joe asks of Lamar over the phone, per USA Today. He also asks for groceries, tickets and shoes. After that, Khloe backs off her suggestion that Lamar and Joe reconcile.


Odom is a fascinating person. He has story of family members that worked at Rikers Island when he was a kid, there is his maturation as a person through his NBA career, and having to deal with the death of close family and a child. His father the addict is just another part of that.

Through it all, Odom may be one of the most positive people you’ll ever meet. Which speaks to his nature — and how the world would be a better place if more of us could be like Odom in outlook.