EX-NBA PLAYER ODOM TALKS ABOUT COCAINE ADDICTION
Former NBA player Lamar Odom opened up about his cocaine addiction that left him in a coma and on life support two years ago in a Players’ Tribune essay, titled, “Done in the Dark” — a nod to his late grandmother who used to say, “What’s done in the dark, will come out in the light.” “I was laying there in that bed, hooked up to all these machines, people all around me crying, and there was no running from it anymore,” Odom, 37, wrote, calling cocaine “a hell of a drug ” and the addictive cycle a roller coaster. “It was the first time in my life that I felt helpless. I felt like I was two inches tall. It was just … it was real. … At that point in my life, I was doing coke every day. Pretty much every second of free time that I had, I was doing coke. I couldn’t control it. ... I’m sober now. But it’s an everyday struggle. I have an addiction. I’ll always have an addiction. It never goes away. I mean, I want to get high right now. But I know that I can’t if I want to be here for my children.” Odom, who won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, checked into rehab when his children told him they’d never speak to him again if he didn’t seek help. “My kids are the only things that kept me going,” he wrote. “I’ve been a big strong dude my whole life, so anytime my kids see me in a weak point like that is definitely hard for me.”