The Truths Of Lamar Odom's Dark Past

April 2024 · 1 minute read

Odom's mother, Cathy Mercer, died of colon cancer when Odom was just 12 years old. Odom's father, a heroin addict, was absent from his life, leaving Odom to be raised by his grandmother, Mildred Mercer, in Jamaica, Queens. (Mildred died in 2004.) Odom bounced around three high schools before getting a scholarship to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas in 1997. In an unfortunate turn of events, Odom was kicked out of UNLV before he played a single game after his ACT score was called into question in an article published by Sports Illustrated. Following his departure, the NCAA accused Odom—who transferred to the University of Rhode Island, where he was unable to play basketball until his second year—of receiving $5,600 from a Las Vegas dentist, Dr. David Chapman, $4,000 of which having been given to him while he was taking summer classes at UNLV. Also in 1997, he was also cited on a charge of soliciting prostitution from an undercover cop in Las Vegas.

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