
Former basketball star Lamar Odom in 2012.
Photo: AP
It was a tragic low for a basketball star who once soared so high: Lamar Odom, former Los Angeles Laker, was carried unconscious from a brothel. Authorities tried to fly him out — but, at 6-foot-10, he was too tall.
The
scene of Odom's collapse — the cause of which is not yet known — was
Dennis Hof's Bunny Ranch in Crystal, Nevada. Employees at the Bunny
Ranch found Odom unconscious in his room with "mucus-type liquid coming
out of his nose and mouth". Hof, the brothel's owner — featured in HBO's
documentary series
Cathouse — told NBC News Odom was taking "herbal Viagra," and "he was taking a lot of it". The Mayo Clinic warns that products claiming to be natural forms of Viagra can cause dangerously low blood pressure.

Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom from the show
Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
Photo: AP
"When we called 911, 911 said roll him on his left side," Hof
said. "And he started throwing up all kinds of stuff, foaming, throwing
up all kinds of things. The girls said they didn't see anything. The
police came out and with the ambulance people. They didn't see
anything."
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He added: "The only thing we know for sure is that he was taking an
excessive amount of herbal Viagra. Not to say that he wasn't doing any
drugs. But nobody saw anything like that. They saw no effects. What I
understand is that he got a phone call and was a little bit sombre on
Sunday afternoon for a while. And then he kind of shook it off and was
having a good time ... They were having a blast with Lamar."
On
Tuesday, a day after Odom was found, US Reverend Jesse Jackson
said Odom was showing signs of responsiveness in a Las Vegas hospital.

Odom on the court with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Photo: AP
"Doctors felt he is much better off today than he was yesterday," Jackson said. "At least there is some responsiveness now."
Odom still
is not talking because "he's got tubes running out," Jackson said, "but
we felt inspired by his presence. We had a prayer."
Jackson, who
said he spent about 30 minutes with Odom, said
that Khloe Kardashian, Odom's estranged wife, is with him, as are some
of Odom's childhood friends from New York. Kobe Bryant, his former
teammate with the Los Angeles Lakers, also stopped by Tuesday night.
"I
won't use the term stable or critical. He looks critical to me,"
Jackson said. "He was non-responsive yesterday, they said he's
responsive today."
As the world awaits news of Odom's condition,
the episode seemed yet another in his tumultuous personal life: drug
problems, a father who was a heroin addict, a mother who died of cancer
when Odom was 12, the death of a son from sudden infant death syndrome.
And, of course, Odom's transition from a real character — a formidable
one — to a reality TV character as a towering prop for Khloe Kardashian.
At
first, it seemed like fate: After a whirlwind 30-day courtship, Odom
and Kardashian wed in 2009, and it was all televised. As seen on
Keeping Up With the Kardashians,
Odom proposed on camera. He declared his intentions to her family on
camera, facing the disapproval of former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner (who
was then known as Bruce). And, of course, the wedding was too good not
to film.
"Wedding planner Sharon Sacks created the Hollywood
nightclub-themed reception that followed in a tent on the property,
fitted with dark wooden walls, white carpeting, silver mirrors and
chandeliers," People reported.
"The tables were decorated with tall white centrepieces with lavender
touches made of roses, calla lilies and exotic leaves in soaring glass
vases."
Even as the ink dried on the marriage licence, there was talk of a
Kardashians spin-off starring the newlyweds.
"I'm seriously thinking about it," Ryan Seacrest,
Kardashians producer and
American Idol host, said at the time.
Seacrest didn't take much time to think. In 2011,
Khloe & Lamar hit E!. From the beginning, Odom seemed a bit stressed. Indeed, he almost pulled out of his "real" life.
"By the third or fourth day, I realised how tough and demanding it was going to be," Odom said in 2011. "I was like, 'I don't think I could do this'."
Kardashian had warned him.
"We literally film our shows seven days a week for 12 to 18 hours a day," she said.
"They want you to be at your wit's end and tired. I think he thought we
could send the cameras away whenever you want, but you can't. And I
didn't want to put him under that pressure. He has his first career."
That "first career," however, was quite a spectacular one: By the time
Khloe & Lamar
aired, Odom was in top form as the Lakers' sixth man. He knew his wife
and her audacious family might distract him from the game. The parade of
death in his life — in 2011, when he was involved in fatal car crash the day after he buried his cousin, he said was "breaking down mentally" — was distracting enough.
But he wanted
Khloe & Lamar
viewers to see him in action — not resting during the off-season. And
the Lakers were willing to go along, providing the reality show game
footage and access to the Lakers' locker room.
"The Lakers, of
course, had their concerns when I went into this, but I made the promise
to them that I would remain the same player, if not try to get better,"
Odom said.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.
Though Odom performed well, he was sent to the Dallas Mavericks in a
surprise trade in 2012. And he wasn't happy about it.
"No disrespect to anybody on that team or the city or the ownership," he said.
"But it's not a place that I wanted to be after playing for the Lakers,
a team that contends for a championship. That's what you expect to be
around. It was hard for me to picture myself there starting over."
Most
players who find themselves unexpectedly shipped out have the chance to
work out their troubles on the court. But Odom had to work them out on
E! as well. His career crisis would be seen twice — first on ESPN, then
by millions of Kardashian fans. In one episode, as Kardashian shopped
for a place in Dallas — a city she had never been to — Odom yawned,
looking miserable.
"Everything hit me at once," he said. "I'm
tired. I'm a little bit out of shape physically and mentally. It's
bothersome." And: "This is the first time basketball has felt like a
job."
Odom ended up back in Los Angeles with the Clippers later that year — the Bleacher Report called his play "putrid". When he became a free agent in 2013, the team didn't sign him.
Meanwhile, life with his wife was on the rocks.
Khloe and Lamar was cancelled after two seasons — or, depending on who was spinning the tale,
just put on hold as the couple claimed they needed a break. There were
reports of Odom's drug use, Kardashian's intervention, a DUI and a trip
to rehab. A bizarre tape of an apparently intoxicated Odam rapping about cheating on Kardashian surfaced. The couple split, finally divorcing earlier this year.
In an episode of
Keeping Up with the Kardashians, she put the collapse of her marriage forward as a PR problem.
"I
haven't seen Lamar in a month, two months," she said. "I haven't seen
him in a long time. So it's really awkward when reporters ask me
questions about Lamar. I really don't know what's happening."
Odom's father blamed his son's woes on the Kardashians.
"They haven't been a good influence on my son," Joe Odom said.
"It's been the curse of his life. He hasn't really accomplished
anything since he's been with them. Without them, he'd still be in the
NBA playing basketball. He'd be playing for the Lakers and be one of the
top players in the league."
From an absent dad with his own history with heroin, this was a bold claim — one Lamar refuted, saying the Kardashians were "the ONLY FAMILY that has loved [him] without expecting anything in return."
But, in dramatic comments captured by TMZ just two months ago, Odom railed against the tabloid culture his ex-wife is at the centre of.
"It's
hard for me to keep my composure," he said. "To everybody that I know
and supports me: I'm sorry, but the dog has to fight back. That's it.
Y'all won. Y'all beat me down, degraded me, said … I'm a womaniser, a
f—ing drug addict, everything. I probably couldn't even get f—ing hired
by Home Depot right now because of how people look at me."
Odom condemned the media frenzy that was a fundamental part of his marriage.
"I
don't believe in what y'all do," he told a cameraman. "I don't believe
in following people around. I don't Twitter. I don't Instagram. It just
came with it."
Still, he said his love for Kardashian had been genuine.
"Me and that girl fell in love," he said.
"You know what I'm saying? That's our business. … Do not disrespect my
space. Do not disrespect my character. Because that's what y'all been
doing and from day one."
The damage, however, was done.
"Y'all
have discredited me, beat me down, took my confidence," he said. The
result? Nobody would pay him to play: "Can't nobody bounce a ball better
than me, and nobody wanna f— with me," he said.
Even divorced and
unconscious in a brothel, it seems, Odom cannot escape the Kardashians.
His hospitalisation quickly became part of Kardashian's narrative.
"Khloe Kardashian Rushes to Lamar Odom's Side Following Hospitalization in Las Vegas,