LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

By LONNIE WHITE

Nov. 7, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It’s tough being Lamar Odom.

It was the Clippers’ season opener at Utah and Odom’s frustration was at the boiling point. He wanted to win so bad, he could taste it. But after watching the Jazz pull away in the second half, Odom couldn’t hold back his emotions and took his anger out on the officials.

Big mistake. He was ejected. But as he sat in the locker room, watching his teammates battle Utah down to the final seconds, he realized something: If he’s going to be a leader, he can’t throw temper tantrums. His grandmother taught him better than that.

“I’ve seen a lot of spiritual growth in Lamar,” said Mildred Mercer, Odom’s grandmother and the woman who raised him in the Queens borough of New York. “But I still think he needs to pray more. I tell him that he doesn’t pray enough.”

Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry doesn’t hide his disappointment in Odom. He criticized his then-20-year-old captain and challenged him to step up. Odom did. He bounced back with three strong games and had one of his best in the Clippers’ five-point loss to the Lakers on Sunday.

Odom was all over the court, banging inside with Horace Grant and Shaquille O’Neal, running the floor with Kobe Bryant and Isaiah Rider. Odom finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots.

Definitely a great game. But when you’re Lamar Odom, you always leave people wanting more.

“We still have to understand that he’s 21 and he’s still learning also,” Gentry said. “We just have to keep talking and teaching and, hopefully along the line, everything will set in. . . . With him, he’s concerned about the mistakes that he made because he wants to play that perfect game. But we need him to keep his composure.”

Being a team leader is not new to Odom but it is when it comes to leading younger players. When the Clippers picked up Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, Keyon Dooling and Corey Maggette during the off-season, Odom suddenly found himself as one of the team’s veterans. No longer could he be the new kid. He had to grow up quick.

“It’s something I am trying to get better at,” he said. “I know I am still young and I’m going to have my lapses. But I’m trying to get better at being responsible. Being on time for everything and handling things the right way. I want to be a better all-around person.”

It’s tough being Lamar Odom.

Odom turned 21 Monday and just passed his driver’s license test last month. But don’t look for him to buy more than one car. Keep it simple. Keep it plain. That’s Odom’s style.

“I am renting a [Chevy] Tahoe now but my aim is a Mercedes 500 or an older model like that,” Odom said. “But it feels real good [to have a driver’s license]. I didn’t know I was going to feel that independent getting one because it never was a big deal. But now, to be able to get up and just go, it is a big difference. Especially in L.A. If I was playing in New York, I probably wouldn’t need a car. But out here is different. I was kind of lying to myself. I passed it on my first try.”

Odom has made a strong effort to make this Clipper team more like a family. On any given day, he will arrive at practice with veteran Jeff McInnis, then leave with Miles and Richardson.

“I know if you don’t get along with me, it’s probably not my fault,” Odom said. “I try and be good with people and be myself. I think that’s why I get a warm response from people.

“Friendships are important to me when they are genuine. You can tell when they are fake. I’m only 21 but I’ve told people before that I’ve lived the life of someone much, much older than me because of all of the ups and downs I’ve gone through. I’ve had to learn the hard way about things out of your control. That makes you a little older.”

When the Clippers made their June draft-day moves to pick up Miles, Richardson, Dooling and Maggette, Odom was as surprised as anyone. After spending his rookie season playing for a team that lacked leadership, Odom was ready to take over as the Clippers’ “main man” anyway. Bringing in more young, talented players just made it easier.

“I can’t be up and down on that roller coaster like I was last season,” he said. “I have to be more composed. I have Darius, Quentin and Keyon and some of the other guys looking at me to see where I am at. I have to help them. . . . I’m really at ease with that.”

Mildred Mercer is proud of her grandson. Not because of his improving basketball talents. She’s proud of Odom because of his growth as a person. Mercer said he has always been sensitive but he’s learning how to deal with life problems better.

“You’ve always been able to tell when he was upset, but you can tell he’s different now,” Mercer said. “He’s still trying to learn that everything can’t be the right way all of the time. Sometimes, things go wrong.

“I talk to him on the phone and every time before we hang up, I remind him that everything is not going to go his way and that there are going to be disappointments in his life. He’s still learning that he has to take the bad with the good. That’s life.”

Odom’s life seems to have been one fastbreak. His mother died of colon cancer when he was 12. About the same time, his father temporarily dropped out of his life while dealing with a heroin addiction Odom says his father has since kicked.

By the time he moved in with his grandmother, Odom was already hooked on sports--football, baseball and then basketball. His father got him into playing basketball when he was 6, and by the time he was 10, Odom was playing point guard against 15-year-olds. At 13, he played against college freshmen and at 15, he was playing against New York City legends already in the NBA.

“It’s always been in my life-- something I’ve always wanted to do,” Odom said. “From the start, I caught on quick. The older players let me handle the ball because I may have been as tall as them, but I wasn’t as strong. So, I learned how to use my quickness to get around them and make plays.”

It’s tough being Lamar Odom.

As many stories as Odom has spawned with his play on the court, he has been involved with nearly as many off. He was a high school All-American as a sophomore but his academics were questioned when he attended three schools in his senior year.

He then had to sit out a year and a semester in college because the NCAA questioned his qualifying test scores. He was rumored to have been involved in scandals but by the time he played his first college game at Rhode Island, his name already was on every NBA general manager’s short list.

When it came time for him to choose playing another season for Rhode Island or declaring for the 1999 draft, Odom again made news when he hired representation, chose the draft, then tried to rescind that announcement and re-enroll at Rhode Island.

He couldn’t return, though, because he had the agent.

Then he fired that agent and hired another. He mystified--and irritated--teams holding the top picks by declining offers to work out and blowing off scheduled appointments.

That little stretch of life taught him a lot about himself, Odom said.

“All of the stuff that had been written about me came at the beginning stage of my career,” he said. “Although it hasn’t been that long, I think I’ve matured the last two years.

“I went to college for a year and got a chance to get a taste of how it is to be under the spotlight. Then I had a year playing in the NBA. Also having a child [he and his girlfriend, Liza Morales, have a daughter, Destiny, soon to be 2] and being a father. All of that has helped me mature over the last couple of years. I’m a man now.

“The only way a person can write a story on me now is if I make it happen, whether it is negative or positive. A couple of years ago, the people I was dealing with, I think I was paying for some of their mistakes. If something happens now, it is because of me.”

It’s tough being Lamar Odom.

Mildred Mercer has never watched Odom play a complete game on television. She is too nervous for that. But she knows he is good. Everyone tells her so.

Odom has been a New York legend for years. It’s not too often a 6-foot-10 point guard comes around.

“It’s funny because I was older than Lamar but because we played around the same area, I heard about him,” said Clipper teammate Zendon Hamilton, a fellow New Yorker. “I was maybe a senior playing high school ball on [Long Island] and I heard about this 6-10 kid running the point and he was only a freshman. I said, ‘What? 6-10? No way.’

“Then I went on to St. John’s and he started playing for the same AAU team I had played for when I was in high school. So my old coach told me to come watch him and when I was a sophomore, I went to see him play in a summer tournament. He didn’t disappoint. He had a triple double. That’s Lamar Odom in a nutshell.

“The thing about Lamar was that after Magic Johnson, there wasn’t any tall point guards. Then he came and, being from the city, it added extra flair. He could pass, he could score, he could rebound. But what made him so special was that he was a statistics guy. It was always like 20 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists. It was never like, ‘Lamar Odom scored 40.’ He always had something in other categories.”

Odom’s basketball ability has never really been questioned. He commands as much respect now as he did when he ripped through summer league competition as a young teenager. To today’s younger generation of players, Odom has always been the man.

“I was a sophomore in high school at the Adidas camp in New Jersey when I first met Lamar,” Richardson said. “On the first day of camp, Dick Vitale was the guest speaker and the first thing he talked about was Lamar Odom.”

Being regarded as a big brother to his new teammates suits Odom. He already plans to spend part of next summer hanging out with Miles.

“It’s weird but I can tell that we’re going to be good friends,” Odom said. “I can see us next summer, calling each other, trying to hook up to work out and do things.”

Said Miles: “He’s really a people person. He is a nice guy who will go to war with you. You can always count on him.”

The Clippers should be pleased to know that.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BY COMPARISON

Lamar Odom’s statistics as a rookie, and those in the first season (FS)--and career (CR)--of players that he’s often compared to:

LAMAR ODOM

*--*

Pts Reb Ast Stl FS 16.6 7.8 4.2 1.2

*--*

GRANT HILL

*--*

Pts Reb Ast Stl FS 19.9 6.4 5.0 1.8 CR 21.6 7.9 6.3 1.6