Sports
Lamar Odom’s past is a ‘cesspool of trauma,’ he says: ‘I don’t know what made me relevant now’
After his October 2015 overdose at a Nevada brothel, Lamar Odom says, he had “12 strokes and six heart attacks. All my doctors say, like, I’m a walking miracle.”
Now, more than a decade later, the Love Ranch brothel has been demolished, but Odom is still around.
The former Laker and onetime husband of Khloé Kardashian is telling his story for “The Death and Life of Lamar Odom,” the newest episode of Netflix’s documentary series “Untold,” along with Kardashian, former coach Phil Jackson and others who were around during his Oct. 13, 2015, health emergency. The episode premiered Tuesday.
“You know what’s funny?” the 46-year-old former player told Sports Illustrated in an interview published Monday. “I haven’t even watched it yet. You know why? Because I lived it.”
Odom, who just got out of another month of rehab in February, insists that the 2015 episode was not a mere overdose but a “hit,” an attempt on his life.
“Right when I signed the divorce papers, I was like, ‘I’m gonna get it in.’ The Bunny Ranch I used to always see on TV, but I don’t have any coke to take,” he says in the documentary. “ … It’s crazy when you think about [how] one decision, so big or so minor, could be so pivotal to you and to people that you really love.”
The late Dennis Hof, owner of the Bunny Ranch, where HBO’s “Cathouse: The Series” was shot, owned other Nevada brothels. Odom set off that October for Hof’s Love Ranch in Crystal, about 80 miles outside of Las Vegas.
“It was pretty rare that a celebrity — certainly anybody above the D-list — would be actively trying to come out to one of the brothels,” former Love Ranch manager Richard Hunter says in the “Untold” episode. “This was kind of a myth. This was something Dennis perpetuated.”
But, Hunter said, “Lamar Odom actually began contacting several of the girls from the Love Ranch on Instagram. … Being a professional athlete, there’s a lot of easier ways to do this than to drive an hour outside of the city into the desert, walk into a brothel, such as it was, and want to live there for a few days.
“As the days progressed, I remember that him or one of his handlers … actually contacted the brothel and wanted a car to pick him up. So it definitely became real when he gave us the address of where he was at.” The driver called the Love Ranch and let them know his passenger really was Odom. They put him in a house behind the brothel, Hunter said, where they put folks who were “spending enough money.”
Odom told USA Today in an interview published Monday that what transpired at the Love Ranch — which was demolished in November 2024, after Hof’s 2018 death — “was like a hit. Obviously they missed. I don’t know if they want to finish the job.”
Hit or not, Odom infamously wound up overdosing on alcohol and various drugs including over-the-counter erectile-dysfunction supplements. He says no cocaine was involved.
Kardashian explains in the episode that her divorce from Odom came as a result of an ultimatum she was told to deliver during a planned intervention: a three-month rehab stint or a split. Odom surprised them, she said, when he said that all he wanted was his passport — and the divorce.
“I was like, looking around like, ‘Wait. Wait. I — I don’t want the divorce,’” she said. “‘You guys [who assembled for the intervention] told me I have to say this.’”
Odom and Kardashian had signed their papers before the OD, but a judge hadn’t yet signed off on the dissolution, which allowed her to keep him insured and, as his wife and next of kin, to make decisions regarding his health. Kobe Bryant, Odom’s Lakers teammate and Kardashian’s close friend, flew to Nevada to help her decide whether to proceed with surgery to fix Odom’s lung that had collapsed. She said yes, even though there was only “like a 10% chance” that it would work and that he would survive the procedure.
Odom made it through, recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Bryant died in a helicopter crash less than five years later.
After the OD, Kardashian never left the hospital. She put their divorce — finalized in 2016 — on hold. When Odom awakened from his coma, he couldn’t control his bowels and needed six hours a day of dialysis, according to the documentary. “So you can understand the humility … I’ve won two championships. I’m Lamar Odom. I can’t walk, can’t talk. And they come in to check my diaper.”
He was 35 at the time. The next summer, he was removed from a flight at LAX before takeoff while drunk and vomiting, having been seen earlier slamming beer and whiskey in the Delta Airlines lounge.
So what would Odom tell his younger self, if he could, after suffering a dozen strokes and six heart attacks after that visit to the Love Ranch?
“Stay away from your weakness. And my weakness, obviously, was drugs because I’m a drug addict,” he told SI. “It could have been passed down to me from my father. But I’m not blaming anybody. Makes no sense to blame anybody. On or off the court, you have to work with what you’ve got. And I had an incredible stat line in terms of skills and how to play the game.
“And just work on being the best player that you can be. Anybody who offers you that s—, drugs, whether it be coke, pot, alcohol, they probably ain’t your friend. And to choose my friends wisely, because they could affect you on or off the court.”
Odom also wasn’t sure why Netflix had tapped him at this moment, but hopes that by telling his story he might help other people who are trying to get out of addiction.
“I was telling my girlfriend on the way here, it’s like swimming in a cesspool of trauma,” he told USA Today, mentioning a partner who has not been identified. “And I’m trying to get out of it, but the story reels me back into that pool every time. But I just know I’m bigger than the situation, and I hope to help a lot of people by giving my testimony. Not just with the story, but just in life, that we can all overcome addiction.”
That and, well, “Netflix had a good paycheck, bro,” he told SI with a laugh. “No, but it’s a time and place for everything. I don’t know what made me relevant now.”
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Eli Manning retired in 2019 and missed out in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility in 2025. He was passed over again earlier this year but still fired back at a fan who claimed one of his contemporaries was the better quarterback.
On Tuesday, a social media user floated a theory about former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. Ryan, who now oversees football operations as the team’s president, last played in an NFL game in 2022. He announced his retirement in 2024, making him eligible for Hall of Fame consideration beginning in 2028.
“Matt Ryan was a better QB than Eli Manning… people just worship rings. Agree or nah,” the post read.
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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning greets Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan after their game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. 22, 2018. (Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports)
Manning caught wind of the suggestion and weighed in, pointing to the two Super Bowl-winning teams he was part of during his standout run with the New York Giants.
“I will ponder this while I play with my rings…,” Manning wrote in a quote-tweet.
Ryan’s statistical production surpasses Manning’s, at least on paper. He was named NFL MVP in 2016, an honor Manning never earned. Ryan is also the most accomplished player in Falcons history and finished his career with more than 62,000 regular-season passing yards, compared with Manning’s 57,023.
NFC head coach Eli Manning leads a huddle during a practice session before the NFL Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 4, 2023. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Both quarterbacks were selected to four Pro Bowls, but the key difference lies in championships. Manning won the Super Bowl in 2007 and 2011, while Ryan reached it once but fell short. Manning threw for a single season career-best 4,933 during the run leading up to the second Super Bowl title.
Ryan threw for 284 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions to help the Falcons build a 25-point lead in the championship game — a matchup remembered for the New England Patriots engineering the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan passes the ball against the Buffalo Bills during the second half at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Jan. 2, 2022. (Rich Barnes/USA TODAY Sports)
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The Falcons have reached the Super Bowl twice in franchise history, first in 1998, but the team is still chasing its first elusive championship.
The Giants marked their 100th season in 2024, winning four Super Bowls over the franchise’s century-long history.
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Star receiver Puka Nacua will fully participate in voluntary offseason workouts, the Rams are getting closer to another contract adjustment with quarterback Matthew Stafford, and coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead hope backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo decides to put off retirement and return for a third season and possible Super Bowl run.
McVay and Snead addressed those topics and the NFL draft on Tuesday during a videoconference with reporters.
Nacua led the NFL in receptions last season but also was involved in a string of off-the-field incidents the last few months, including an alleged biting incident that led to a civil lawsuit. Those situations put the brakes on any immediate discussion between the Rams and Nacua about a massive extension for the fourth-year pro.
In March, Nacua began a rehabilitation program in Malibu, but he was present for the first day of workouts on Monday.
Nacua, 24, “looks great” and is “doing really well,” McVay said. McVay declined to detail discussions he’s had with the All-Pro, who was a finalist for NFL offensive player of the year.
“He and I have a great relationship,” McVay said. “Feel really good about kind of the direction we’re going.”
Stafford, 38, led the Rams to the NFC championship game last season and is the reigning NFL most valuable player. According to overthecap.com, he is due to carry a salary-cap number of $48.3 million this season.
But Stafford has no doubt demanded, and will receive, a raise and a possible additional year in a deal that the Rams acknowledged two years ago is essentially a year-to-year situation.
“Progress has been made,” Snead said of negotiations.
There is no timeline, Snead said, “but don’t expect any drama, per se.”
Garoppolo, 34, has backed up Stafford for two seasons, and he has been invaluable.
Last year, with Stafford sidelined for training camp because of a back issue, Garoppolo ran the offense and prepped the defense with a skillset honed during a 12-year career that included a Super Bowl appearance. Stafford joined workouts before the season and remained healthy throughout, but Garoppolo was perhaps the most valuable insurance policy in the NFL.
Last season, Garoppolo played on a one-year contract and earned $4.5 million, according to overthecap.com.
McVay expressed confidence in fourth-year pro Stetson Bennett, but said he was hopeful that “when the time is right,” Garoppolo will “change his mind,” and return.
“You leave the door open,” McVay said when asked if there was a point that Rams would press Garoppolo to return. “I don’t think you want to press. What you don’t want to do is ever force a guy to play if in his mind he’s ready to move on.
“But you don’t want to minimize that, ‘Hey, if you do decide you want to play, let’s make sure it’s here with us.”
The Rams have the 13th pick in the NFL draft, which begins Thursday in Pittsburgh. They have one pick in the second and third rounds, one in the sixth round and three in the seventh.
Receiver, offensive line and edge rusher are among the positions the Rams could address with their first top-15 pick since they selected quarterback Jared Goff with the No. 1 pick in 2016.
“There’s a lot of possibilities,” McVay said. “We don’t control what happens in those 12 picks before, and so what we’ve done is a lot of contingency planning and a lot of conversations, and feel really good about that.”
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The PGA Tour has announced that it will not be hosting an event in Hawaii during the 2027 season, ending a 56-year run of holding a tournament in The Aloha State. The change comes as the Tour and CEO Brian Rolapp have consistently teased a revamped schedule beginning next year.
The Tour was forced to cancel The Sentry at the start of the 2026 campaign due to the dying grass on the Plantation Course at Kapalua amid a local dispute with the company responsible for delivering water to the area.
An aerial view of the golf course from over the ocean prior to The Sentry at The Plantation Course at Kapalua on December 31, 2023 in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii. (Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR) (Ben Jared/PGA TOUR)
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With The Sentry being canceled, the Sony Open at Waialae Country on Oahu served as the Tour’s season opener in ‘26, which was won by Chris Gotterup. The event was in the final year of its sponsorship, although the Tour has shared that it is working toward making the event the opening event on the PGA Tour Champions circuit.
Chris Gotterup of the United States celebrates with the trophy on the 18th green after his winning round of the Sony Open in Hawaii 2026 at Waialae Country Club on January 18, 2026 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
The Tour’s removal of The Sentry and the Sony Open wipes out what has now turned into a traditional two-week stretch on the island to begin a new season.
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The PGA Tour did not share further details about the 2027 schedule upon its announcement about leaving Hawaii, but with Sentry reportedly being an event title-sponsor through 2035, it will need to find a new landing spot on the calendar. The logical stop would be Torrey Pines in San Diego, which checks the West Coast and great weather boxes, but the venue is also looking for a new sponsor, as its deal with Farmers Insurance ended in 2026.
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View of the 18th hole is seen during the final round of The Sentry at The Plantation Course at Kapalua on January 5, 2025 in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii. (Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images) (Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
The Tour’s decision not to begin next season in Hawaii makes sense, as there are plenty of venues in the lower 48 states that are much easier to operate from, but the departure will have a tremendous financial impact on the state.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that The Sentry is estimated to have a $50 million annual impact on the community, while the Sony Open directly generates an estimated $100 million in revenue per year, plus another $1 million per year to Friends of Hawaii charities.
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