Lamar Odom breaks silence on Twitter after arrest; a ‘dark time’

Basketball star Lamar Odom spoke out for the first time since he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence late last month, lashing out against his father on Twitter and saying he was going through a “dark time.”

“How can a man who has NOT once called me to check on my well being have the nerve to talk so recklessly about his own ‘son’,” Odom posted on Twitter. “He is my downfall! His own demons may be the ONLY thing he gave 2 me.”

Odom’s first post late Tuesday was simply “Seeing the snakes” and the next message that followed was an impassioned rant against his father and in favor of other family members.

“He wasn’t there 2 raise me. He was absent ALL of my life due to his own demons. My mother and grandmother raised me. Queens raised me,” he wrote. “For the first time since they left, came a blessing of a FAMILY that I married into. FAMILY.”

He also talked about his wife, Khloe Kardashian: “Before her there never was and without her will never be. Wifey is real.”

Odom was arrested Aug. 30 after he was seen driving erratically on the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley, according to the California Highway Patrol.

When pulled over, Odom showed “objective signs of intoxication and was unable to perform field sobriety tests as explained and demonstrated,” according to a CHP report. At the Van Nuys jail, he also refused chemical tests and was booked without incident.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

An NBA free agent, Odom has played for the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers.

[For the record, 10:20 a.m., Sept. 25: An earlier verson of this post misspelled the first name of Khloe Kardashian as Chloe.]

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ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com