PACKERS CASHING IN
Odom to NYC Hall of Fame
The next stop on Lamar Odom’s odyssey will lead the former Laker back East into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.
Odom, 37, is the headliner for the next class of inductees. He will be joined by Ron Behagan, Jackie Jackson, Larry Lembo, Kevin Stacom, Anne Gregory-O’Connell and coach Steve Lappas. Bob Williams, the Hall of Fame’s president and co-founder, will be honored with the Trustees Award, as well.
The 28th annual induction dinner will be held at the New York Athletic Club on Sept. 27. Odom played for Christ the King long before he met any Kardashians. He went on to play college basketball at Rhode Island and later won NBA championships alongside Kobe Bryant with the Los Angeles Lakers.
—Kevin Armstrong l The NBA wants to see the finish of its games go a bit more quickly. The league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved some changes that will potentially eliminate four timeouts per game, help speed up the final minutes of games and emphasize a timely resumption of play after halftime. Teams will be limited to two timeouts in the final three minutes of a game, instead of having up to three. All four quarters will have two mandatory timeouts, after the 7- and 3-minute marks. Also, all halftimes will be 15 minutes and delay of game penalties will be issued if teams are not ready to immediately play when intermission ends. The league also changed the trade deadline, moving it up so teams would not have their rosters significantly altered during the All-Star break.
l The Los Angeles Lakers have signed free agent guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a one-year, $18 million contract.
NFL relocation fees helped boost the bottom line for the Green Bay Packers and the rest of the NFL. The league’s only publicly owned team released its 2017 statement, reporting net income of $72.8 million.
About $27.1 million is part of the team’s share of the fees that the Raiders, Rams and Chargers had to pay to relocate. Such fees are split equally among NFL teams that aren’t moving.
The Packers’ annual financial statements always provide a peek into the lucrative business side of the NFL, especially since the team plays in the league’s smallest market.