Lamar Odom is keeping his late friend and teammate’s name alive with a special tribute, a tattoo.
The former NBA star, 42, recently revealed that he recently got a tattoo of Bryant, his former teammate, when they both played on the Los Angeles Lakers. He says he had many dreams about the late athlete while he was on Celebrity Big Brother.
“It’s just his face. It’s on my neck. When I was in the CBB house, I dreamed [of] him four or five times,” Odom confirmed to PageSix and showed photos of the black ink design. “They were really vivid and easy to remember because he was talking to me in the dreams.”
Odom recalled one of his dreams that involved him having a 3-point shooting contest in which they discussed the afterlife.
“I woke up really emotional after that,” said Odom.
Odom has been open about his relationship with the late NBA star following his death.
During Odom’s last appearance on the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, he said Bryant offered to help him with his gambling problems during one of their last phone conversations.
“I had been gambling. It got a little too steep for where I was at at that time,” Odom recounted in April 2021. “It was getting tight. And if you in a bad situation, especially about some money, [Bryant] ain’t the one that you gonna wanna call.”
“I gathered up the strength. I put my pride to the side,” he continued. “And I gave him a call.”
Recalling the conversation, Odom added that Bryant scolded him for his gambling habits, but also let him know he was willing to help.
“After he went in, he was just like, ‘Have your people call my people, and we’ll figure it out,’ ” Odom said. “That was one before the last time that I spoke to him.”
When Bryant died alongside his daughter, Gianna, and seven other passengers in a helicopter crash in 2020, Odom penned a touching tribute to his friend on social media.
“He taught me so many things in life that were necessary on and off the court,” Odom wrote on his Instagram account. “On the court, he taught me how to carve out defenses and how to take my time. How to make winning my ultimate goal. Off the court, he taught me to sign my own checks lol.”
“Even though our relationship wasn’t father/son, it was more like him being a teacher and me being his brother,” Odom — who was hospitalized and near death after he overdosed in 2015 — wrote, in part.
“I know I been through my own stuff in life with using drugs and not being good to myself,” he said. “When I went through that Coma situation if God would have came to me and said we would take me and spare Kobe I would have rather that happened.”
Discover more from Baller Alert
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
