SPORTS
September 29, 2006 | Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writer
Lamar Odom sat down, placed his Bible on a table and, with damp eyes, told the story of his summer. His infant son died while sleeping in a crib, a loss that has tugged at him since it happened in June. The autopsy report labeled it an "unremarkable" death, a seven-month-old's life snatched by sudden infant death syndrome, the latest in a line of losses traceable through Odom's years. Odom was in New York for the funeral of an aunt when Jayden Odom died.
SPORTS
January 11, 2003 | Tim Brown, Times Staff Writer
It was a day when he was lambasted on talk radio and the Internet, linked socially to Louis Farrakhan by a New York Post gossip columnist and threatened with fines by the NBA for not speaking publicly, and near the end of that day Shaquille O'Neal apologized. He said he was not a racist for his taunt of Houston center Yao Ming, said his relationship with the Nation of Islam leader was his business, and, simply by saying all of that, eased any pressure he might have felt from the NBA.
SPORTS
January 22, 2010 | By Mike Bresnahan
There was a reason Phil Jackson could be seen balancing a large stack of books earlier this week at a Los Angeles bookstore. The Lakers coach bought books for each of his players and distributed them before their eight-game trip, part of an annual ritual before a Jackson-coached team begins a long winter trip. Kobe Bryant , who rolls his eyes whenever Jackson gives him a book, probably won't be perusing what Jackson handed him: "Montana 1948," a Larry Watson novel about a middle-class Montana family torn apart by a scandal in the late 1940s.
SPORTS
November 20, 2009 | By Broderick Turner
Five years ago Thursday, Ron Artest was a part of one of the worst brawls in sports history when he and his Indiana Pacers teammates went into the stands during a game against the Detroit Pistons at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich. Five years later, on the anniversary of that unforgettable event, Artest was tracked down before the Lakers played the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center and asked what he recalled from that night. Artest maintained that he "didn't start any trouble" and that he should get some of his money back after being suspended for 73 games without pay. "I put it behind me immediately because I did nothing," Artest said.
NEWS
June 22, 2000 | TERESA WATANABE, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Blocks away from the triumphant Los Angeles Lakers victory parade Wednesday, the Buddhist priest pondered the win, the way and the sound of thousands of hands clapping. Yes, said the Rev. Noriaki Ito, he expected the Lakers would ride to a world championship the moment he heard Coach Phil Jackson was coming to town. He had followed him for years, knew he practiced Zen meditation and knew he incorporated those concepts into his coaching. Jackson, of course, practices more than Zen.
SPORTS
June 11, 2002 | Bill Plaschke
The man who doesn't exist walks larger than life through the dank hallways of the Goodwill Home and Mission, wearing a gold Laker jersey adorned with, "O'Neal." The man who abandoned his second child awakens every morning in his tiny, windowless room to photos of the boy on the wall and desk, all grown up, giant and famous and gone. The man who has been purposely forgotten has put a message on his answering machine that shows he will never forget. "Hi, this is Shaq ... " says the voice.