If one side of the Lakers' locker room is inhabited by a grimace, the other side is occupied by grace.
If Kobe Bryant is the Lakers' heat, then Lamar Odom is their humanity, a simple guy fighting through life's complexities with sad smiles and soft wisdom.
"We had a saying in my old neighborhood," he says Friday in the gentlest of New York accents. "Either you ride, or you get rolled over."
These days Odom is riding, hard and fast and purposeful, across the spring courts, through our collective consciousness, maybe into a new Lakers contract, certainly into a new Lakers reputation.
With his unselfish versatility -- he recorded a double-double against the Orlando Magic in Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals -- he is a perfect complement to Bryant's attack.
With his open emotions -- he waves to fans, he laughs with referees, he eats candy bars at halftime -- he is a perfect complement to Bryant's personality.
"What do I bring to the locker room?" he says. "I guess I just bring Lamar."
He not only wears his heart on his sleeve but around his neck, which is constantly adorned with a rosary.
He also wears it on his sneakers, in tiny black Magic Marker names and numbers, a lifetime in little scribbles.
On the side of his shoe are written the words "Jayden" and "Grandma."
His grandmother who raised him died on June 29, 2004.
His son Jayden, not yet seven months old, died of sudden infant death syndrome on that same date two years later.
"There is something comforting in the timing of it," he says. "It was almost like my grandma was saying, 'It's OK Lamar, I got him now.' "
On the toe of his shoe is written "Cathy," for his mother who died of colon cancer when he was 12.
"In dealing with death, I believe that you have to move forward, but I also believe you can never forget," he says.
On the tongue of the shoe are the numbers "114-18." That was his first address in Queens.
"I was born in New York, I live in Miami, and I play for the Los Angeles Lakers," he says. "What could be better than that?"
Through all of his loss, he lives, bigger and brighter every day this postseason, calling old friends down from the stands to hug them during pregame warmups, slapping high fives with fans during games.
And the candy. Oh, my, the candy.
