Odom flagged, says no ill will

January 2nd, 2008, 2:27 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Curtis Zupke, Staff writer

By CURTIS ZUPKE

The Orange County Register

EL SEGUNDO - Lamar Odom fancies himself a “Pee Wee legend” in his youth football days in New York.

The open-field tackle he laid on Boston’s Ray Allen on Sunday could have been spliced into his old Pop Warner football highlights, but Odom said there was no malicious intent.

“I didn’t think it was that excessive,” Odom said after Wednesday’s practice. “I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I was just trying to make a play on the ball.”

Odom was given a one-game suspension for the play, which occurred with 2:56 remaining in a 110-91 loss. The 6-foot-10 Odom chased a loose ball and ran into Allen on the sideline, knocking Allen to the floor as Boston’s bench rushed around the scene.

Odom, given a flagrant foul, penalty two, said he will not appeal.

He did acknowledge that he might have been emotionally charged from the previous play when a Boston player undercut him.

“I didn’t try to overreact,” Odom said. “But Ray Allen was there, he had the ball and I wanted to foul him hard. Maybe I fouled him a little too hard.”

Allen reportedly said that the play was “uncalled for,” but Odom said it was not dirty.

“If I cheap shot him, he would know I cheap shot him,” Odom said.

“We’re big athletes. We’re big people. We run fast and collide. Sometimes people get taken off their feet. It happens. There were a lot of hard fouls like that.”

Coach Phil Jackson, who watched Kobe Bryant serve two suspensions last season for hitting Manu Ginobili and Kyle Korver, said “You’re never surprised with the NBA” when asked about the ruling. He did agree with the league that Odom made a non-basketball move.

Asked if it was out of character, Jackson said he’d never seen Odom do such a move in practice. He thought a lot had to do with the circumstances - a blowout loss to the Celtics in the final minutes.

“I’ve never seen him come loose like that before,” Jackson said. “I think he’s done something like that before sometime, somewhere because he was kind of losing it out there. He hustled his butt off and everything just wasn’t working for him.”

Odom will serve the suspension Friday when the Lakers play Philadelphia. Jackson said he will likely put Ronny Turiaf at forward in place of Odom.

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