Bryant Unhappy with Odom Departure
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant was scratching his head Sunday amid reports that the club was shipping Lamar Odom to Western Conference rivals -- and NBA champions -- Dallas.
"To be honest with you, I don't like it," Bryant said at the team's training camp.
"It's tough to lose Lamar," Bryant said. "Pau (Gasol) is still here, and we're all thankful for that. It's hard when you've been through so many battles with players to just see them go somewhere else. It's tough."
Odom and Gasol had been named as players headed out of Los Angeles in a proposed trade that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers. That deal, however, was quashed by the NBA.
Neither the Lakers nor the Mavericks officially confirmed a trade on Sunday, but Dallas coach Rick Carlisle and star Dirk Nowitzki both more or less confirmed the move, saying they were excited to welcome Odom.
He averaged 14.4 points 8.7 rebounds and three assists in winning the sixth-man award as the league's top reserve last season -- all while starring in a reality television series with his wife, Khloe Kardashian, that some feared would be a distraction to his team.
"You're talking about the sixth man of the year last year," Bryant said. "He played lights-out. He had his best season last year, clearly wasn't a distraction, played his butt off. I don't get where that comes from."
Odom didn't attend training on Sunday but Spain's Gasol did.
"I understand this is a business, and it's become more of a business than a sport nowadays," Gasol said. "It hasn't been extremely easy to be calm and quiet and not think about the different possibilities. But I'm still here, and I'm thankful for that."
Source: Agence France Presse
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