Lamar Odom says recalling past 'like swimming in a cesspool of trauma'
Lamar Odom says recalling past 'like swimming in a cesspool of trauma'
Erin Jensen, USA TODAYMon, March 30, 2026 at 8:21 PM UTC
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A week before Netflix’s “Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom” premieres March 31, the documentary’s subject has not seen the film.
The two-time NBA champion, who dribbled into the Kardashians' reality-sphere while concealing a drug habit, is now a recovering addict approaching 60 days of sobriety when we speak on March 24. (Odom completed a 30-day stay in rehab in February, following an arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence the month prior. Odom has pleaded not guilty, and a bench trial is scheduled for July 7.)“Every recovering addict knows that you want to kind of stay away from things that were traumatizing in your life,” Odom tells USA TODAY. The 46-year-old, who has been sober since Jan. 28, welcomes the opportunity to share his perspective, but revisiting the tragedies and transgressions in interviews comes at a cost.
“I was telling my girlfriend on the way here, it's like swimming in a cesspool of trauma,” Odom says. (His current partner hasn't been confirmed.) “And I'm trying to get out of it, but the story reels me back into that pool every time. But I just know I'm bigger than the situation, and I hope to help a lot of people by giving my testimony. Not just with the story, but just in life, that we can all overcome addiction.”
Lamar Odom believes day at Nevada brothel could be ‘a hit,’ worries they might ‘want to finish the job’
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, Odom was found non-responsive at a now-demolished brothel approximately 80 miles outside of Las Vegas. “They need to hurry, please” a person at the Love Ranch begged in a call to 9-1-1, “because he’s got blood hanging out of his nose, white stuff coming out of his mouth. They can’t get him to wake up.”
Odom spent close to three months recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He says he suffered 12 strokes and six heart attacks, but he ultimately defied doctors’ predictions that he’d never walk or talk again.
At the time of the incident, employees of the Love Ranch told the Nye County Sheriff's Office that Odom used cocaine the Saturday prior and had taken multiple sexual performance enhancing pills. But Odom insists he did not overdose on cocaine.
Lamar Odom tells USA TODAY that revisiting his past can be “like swimming in a cesspool of trauma.”
“I didn't have any cocaine to take to the brothel that day,” he says. “And I was kind of f------ heated that I just signed these divorce papers (from ex-wife Khloé Kardashian), and I thought I was going to live out a young addict mind’s dream and go to this brothel with some cocaine and go all out that night. And that just wasn't the case.”
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“It was like a hit,” Odom says of what transpired at the Love Ranch. “Obviously they missed. I don't know if they want to finish the job.”
Kobe Bryant helped Khloé Kardashian decide on high-risk surgery with ‘like a 10% chance’ it would work
In the documentary, Kardashian reveals that Odom’s lungs collapsed during his hospital stay. The “Khloé in Wonder Land” podcast host says Odom’s medical team advised they could perform a surgery with “like a 10% chance it will work, or he might die on the table.” Odom’s former Lakers teammate, the late Kobe Bryant, “helped me make the decision of doing the surgery,” Kardashian says in “Untold.” “We got his lungs to work, and he didn’t die. But he fell into a coma.”
“He’s been more than a brother to me,” Odom says of his relationship with Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in 2020. “It's the reason why I got him tattooed on my neck right here, so he can kind of stay in my ear and help guide me through this thing that we call life. My relationship with him was really special, and I kind of adapted and adopted the mamba mentality. And the mamba mentality is basically putting your best foot forward every day.”
Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant in an NBA Playoff game on April 20, 2011 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.Lamar Odom and Khloé Kardashian haven’t spoken, despite her participation in the documentary
Odom says he hasn’t been in touch with Kardashian, whom he divorced in 2016, or seen her since their televised reunion for Hulu’s “The Kardashians” which aired in February 2025. Their meeting, at times, felt awkward and tense. Kardashian met Odom’s overt warmth with unsettled feelings about their tumultuous past.
“To me, it didn't really go well,” Odom says. “Felt like she was in attack mode, but I can't really invalidate her feelings, and I won't do that. I kind of almost felt sorry for her, in a sense, when I walked away from it. Even though I know she's OK − she's in a good place, she has kids now (True and Tatum Thompson, with ex Tristan Thompson) − but I could understand the hurt that I caused her.”
Lamar Odom and Khloé Kardashian pose at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Aug. 7, 2011.
Kardashian and Odom’s courtship was quick; 30 days after meeting in 2009, they tied the knot.
“It’s a time that I wouldn't change,” Odom says. For the most part. “Only thing I would change (would) probably be my actions. But it was a part of my book, part of my history, it ain't going anywhere. But all I can do is try to be the best man I can be now for myself, for my children (Destiny and Lamar Odom Jr., shared with ex Liza Morales) and for my family.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lamar Odom on 'Untold' documentary, brothel, which might've been 'hit'
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
