Scott Van Pelt Recalls Lamar Odom’s NBA Career

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt took a moment on Wednesday night’s SportsCenter to remind viewers all that Lamar Odom, 35, once was a big-time NBA player long before he became a member of the Kardashian clan. “Kardashian reality star? No, no, no, no. Lamar Odom, unlike those for whom fame is oxygen, whose fame comes in the absence of accomplishment, his fame was earned,” Van Pelt said. The sportscaster was certainly trying to make a strong point, as Odom had quite an impressive 14-year career in the NBA, which included two championships in 2009 and 2010 with the Los Angeles Lakers. Van Pelt also mentioned rapper Bun B‘s tweet, which expressed a similar sentiment: “Word? A Kardashian reality star. F— his NBA career, right Nancy Grace? He has a goddamn name. Lamar Odom. Vultures.”

Odom, who played as a forward for the Lakers from 2004 to 2011, as well as the Dallas Mavericks and the LA Clippers after that, was found unconscious at the Love Ranch brothel in Nevada on Tuesday by two female employees. The manager of the brothel reportedly called 911 and noticed a “mucus-type liquid coming out of his nose and mouth,” TMZ reported. Odom was then rushed to a local hospital in Las Vegas, and remained in a coma with kidney and lung damage, as well as heart failure, up until Friday evening when managed to speak a few words to his wife, Khloe Kardashian.