Lamar Odom is “56 or 57 days” sober, the former NBA star exclusively tells Page Six.
“No alcohol, no pot, no marijuana. And I’m just [continuing] to grow mentally and spiritually. I do try to be my best self and practice the Mamba mentality, which has been passed down to me by my late brother [Kobe Bryant].”
Odom, 46, is reflecting on his near-fatal 2015 drug overdose for the new Netflix documentary, “Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom.” Premiering Tues. on Netflix, the doc covers the former NBA player’s career, his marriage to Khloe Kardashian, drug addiction, and his coma following the overdose in a Nevada brothel in 2015.
The documentary covers how Bryant – who died at 41 in a 2020 helicopter crash – rushed to Odom’s side when he was hospitalized.
Odom tells us that because he was in a coma, he wasn’t aware of Bryant’s presence at the time, “But to know that he was there…when I’m reflecting on it, I think that’s probably what pulled me through. The love that I was getting from everybody. It’s always good to have support, and of course support from your brothers.”
Looking back on his use of drugs such as cocaine and crack – which he discusses onscreen in the doc – the former Laker tells Page Six, “I’m not the same person. I do everything in my strength to protect my sobriety.”
He adds that it’s “easy” to “backtrack” and call “a guy who used to deliver marijuana to me. But I’ve come too far to take a step back,” the former athlete tells us.
“If I take a step back, then I’m…dying. I feel like I want to live as long as Moses did.”
Odom’s sobriety has been a rocky road even after the 2015 incident. In January, he was arrested for a DUI in Las Vegas.
These days, he tells us “I’m trying to read a lot more [and] sharpen up my brain. When I woke up [from the 2015 coma], they told me I would never walk and talk again….And so, every day is a blessing.”
The former reality TV star – who graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Britain, Connecticut – calls himself “like an eighth grade drop out” because after his mother died of cancer when he was twelve years old.
At the time, “I gave up on school” he tells Page Six. He adds that he “never really put my best foot forward” when it came to “academics” or “challenging myself in the academia world.”
“So, I’m just trying to live my best life and trying to practice being sober and spread the word that it’s a beautiful thing to be present every day.”
He says that he’s not trying to take life too seriously.
“Sometimes my sense of humor may be a little dark to others, but I’ve been in dark places in life.”
The documentary doesn’t shy away from the ugly sides of addiction. Kardashian, who is also in it, discusses his infidelity onscreen, and how she used to clean up after him, amid his drug binges.
“Hopefully my story and my testimony can give people the strength and the will to overcome the terrible brain disease of addiction, and to bring awareness, hope and faith,” Odom tells Page Six.
Odom is currently dating Rachel Bradley, and he shares two adult children – Destiny, 28, and Lamar Jr., 24 – with his high school sweetheart, Liza Morales. He and Morales also had another son, Jayden, who died at 6 months old in 2006 from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“I have a lot to live for,” he says. “Whether it’s myself, for my children, my family…I just want to focus on my relationship with God and trying to educate myself as much as possible.”
“Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom” premieres March 31 on Netflix.
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