Lakers: Odom vs. Jackson

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First Lakers controversy of the year!

Almost.

There are a couple of reasons why Lamar Odom’s announcement that Lakers Coach Phil Jackson must be out of his ‘... mind’ if he thinks Lamar will come off the bench is no biggie.

One, Jackson has no plans to bring Odom off the bench.

Two, he’s Lamar Odom. Kobe Bryant’s state of mind, however tortured, is always important because he’s Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately for Lamar, he’s not Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol. He’s just Lamar Odom.

There may well come a day that Jackson doesn’t start Odom. However, before that happens, Odom will have shown he can’t handle the switch to small forward.

At that point, Odom — who’s in the last year of his $14.1-million-a-year-deal and may be getting apprehensive about not getting invited back — will be on his way out and his feelings about coming off the bench will be even less important than they are now.

-- Mark Heisler