The Lamar Odom era in Dallas was a perfect example of a potentially great trade gone horribly wrong. The Mavericks gave up hardly anything to bring Odom on board. With his playoff experience and veteran poise, many expected Odom to turn into a tremendous role player for the defending champions. Instead, he never got over the fact that the Lakers shipped him off. Dallas has ruled him inactive for the remainder of the season, but they will still be required to paid his salary. Charles Barkley thinks that’s ridiculous.
“You know I love my man Cubes,” Barkley told KESN-FM 103.3 in Dallas according to Fox Sports Southwest. “I’m surprised it took that long. The D-League thing was, to me, a red flag. But that didn’t wake him up. And I’ve got to tell you something. I always pull for my players. I always pull for the players. But the fact that they’ve got to pay him, I think is a joke. I mean, because he didn’t earn his salary. He didn’t earn it at all.
“I think it’s a joke that he’s gonna get paid for sitting at home for the next few months. In the NBA, we get paid every two weeks. So, Lamar’s making close to $10 million a year. So, he’s probably going to miss two paychecks. He’s probably making $300,000 to $400,000 every two weeks. So, to sit at home and make that type of money just really pisses me off, to be honest with you, for the effort he put out there.”
Newsflash for Charles: There are a number of people out there who think it’s a joke that you get paid thousands of dollars to sit in a television studio and sound like an idiot, but that’s an entirely different argument in itself. As for Odom getting paid, that’s just the nature of professional sports. If he thinks the Odom situation in Dallas is a joke, he must really the Barry Zito situation in San Francisco, the Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey situations in Boston, and the Jayson Werth situation in Washington. That’s just the way it goes.
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