Lamar Odom Still Unhappy With Lakers for Messy End in Los Angeles, Calls Team’s Actions ‘Cowardly’

Lamar Odom made it abundantly clear at the time that he was not happy to be traded by the Los Angeles Lakers.

A month later, he still has hard feelings.

In an extensive interview with The Los Angeles Times, Odom spoke about the Lakers' unsuccessful efforts to ship him to New Orleans and the subsequent successful trade that landed him in Dallas.

"It hurt my feelings," said Odom, who expressed unhappiness over the lack of communication between him and the team throughout the process as well. "Why would they choose to go that route? My father lives in California and I take care of my dad. They know about my family situation, everything about me, everything about Lamar.

"It was impossible for me not to take it personally. When I spoke to one of the representatives for the Lakers, the first thing he said was 'Don't take it personally.' That means it's personal if it's the first thing someone says to you."

The 6-foot-10 forward was traded to the Mavericks two weeks before the regular season began. He was a reported piece of the trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, but that deal was shut down by the league. Sensing an unhappy Odom, L.A. then shipped the reigning Sixth Man of the Year and a second-round pick to Dallas for the Mavs' first-round pick in the 2012 draft.

Odom's family life — aside from his father — is also a pretty prevalent story line. The forward stars on a reality TV show with his wife, Khloe Kardashian, and he also wondered if that had something to do with him being traded.

"Were those the reasons I got traded? Because I don't know what I did," he told the Times. "I was never told 'This is why we're doing it.' I was told from the guy that represents me, who is good at what he does, that it's a straight money thing. They just wanted to get rid of money. I thought we had established the type of relationship that if that was the case, they'd just tell me."

Much of Odom's beef appears to come from the way the team handled sending him out of L.A.

"They won't even look you in the eye. There was a lot of things that some people in the business would call cowardly."

Odom has struggled at times with the defending champion Mavericks in his first season there. He enters Monday night's matchup with the Lakers — in Los Angeles — averaging just 6.8 points and five rebounds per game. Those are both drop-offs from his career averages, as is his playing time, as the 12-year pro is playing just 20 minutes a night.