Report: Former NBA star Lamar Odom suffers drug relapse

By Josh Hill | Jul 9, 2015

Feb 23, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; FOX Sports reporter Kristina Pink (right) interviews Los Angeles Clippers forward Lamar Odom (7) after the game against the Utah Jazz at the Staples Center. The Clippers defeated the Jazz 107-94. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

Lamar Odom has reportedly suffered a drug relapse following the death of his friend Jamie Sangouthai last month.

Professional athletes are public figures that fans across the world form a relationship with based around the fandom of their team. They become a part of your family, in many ways, and you watch them grow up and move away. Fans of teams still pay attention to players that used to play for their squads long after their gone, but not every encounter is a happy one.

Fans who watched Lamar Odom are witnessing him spiral downward as his life away from basketball is getting increasingly harder to watch.

According to Life & Style Magazine, Odom has suffered a drug relapse following the death of his friend Jamie Sangouthai last month. Sangouthai came into the public eye thanks to Odom’s reality show on E! with Khloe Kardashian, but drugs took him away far too early.

It’s been a dark fall from the to for Odom, who just a few years ago was playing in the NBA and contending for a title. But since then, his life has spiraled out of control and he can’t seem to get things together.

Odom may not have been a role model player, but you get to know players from watching them everyday of your life. Fans of the Heat, Clippers, Lakers and Mavericks who spent time watching Odom have a strange connection with him that was comforting — if not frustrating at times — and that relationship is why it’s so hard to watch the former pro spiral so hard out of control.

Substance abuse is no joke, and watching someone as mighty as Odom — an NBA champion and All-Star player — spiral so hard out of control is devastating to witness.

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