Lamar Odom: Cocaine helped end my NBA career

Lamar Odom says that cocaine helped end his NBA career.

Odom “cheated death” in his words by recovering from 12 strokes and two heart attacks suffered in 2015 after a drug overdose. Now that he’s recovered, he is opening up about his issues and looking to make a docuseries and sell an autobiography. That’s why he opened up to US Weekly for an interview in which he talked about many of his issues over the past several years.

Odom said of the infamous Oct. 2015 brothel incident that left him in a coma, “I cheated death. The line between life and death is really thin.”

He credits ex-wife Khloe Kardashian for helping him to recover from the medical scare, saying she helped him get his memory back.

Odom says he doesn’t regret getting involved with the Kardashians, even though his life seemed to spiral negatively after his marriage to Khloe. He does say he regrets having multiple affairs while married.

After Khloe filed for divorce in 2013 for the first time, Odom says he kicked his drug use up to an alarming level. He believes that killed his NBA career, which ended after the 2012-2013 season he spent with the Clippers.

“I was in a very dark place and very confrontational. I wasn’t trying to repair my marriage; I was just trying to get high. My life was all about drugs at that point. It probably helped the end of my career come along a little faster because drugs killed my drive to want to train and be in shape,” Odom told US.

Odom says he went to rehab in January after his daughter gave him an ultimatum. He says he has been clean and drug-free since.