Jackson Says Odom Isn’t Playing Basketball

Lakers’ Lamar Odom is feeling the wrath of coach Phil Jackson, who says the veteran player is playing a game other than basketball. Jackson’s experiment with Odom in the pre-season isn’t faring well, as the versatile plater had five fouls at Tuesday’s exhibition game against Utah (which the Lakers lost). As a primary ball-handler on offense and a small forward on defense, Odom’s fouls outnumbered his points and assists. Odom was in the starting lineup but his stats (other than his fouls) were insignificant, bad news since Jackson recently suggested he may come off the bench.

Odom had three points, five rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes and assistant coach Kurt Rambis told the L.A. Times that Odom “didn’t seem focused out there,” calling his game “fair to middling, maybe poor.” Jackson’s wasn’t so diplomatic with his words, telling the Times, “He looks like he’s either curling or doing some other kind of sport. He’s not playing basketball.” Snap.

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