Odom Plays Waiting Game

All dressed up but in no shape to play, Lamar Odom went through the rituals of Clipper media day Monday at Staples Center. He donned his No. 7 jersey and oversized shorts, laced up his high-tops then posed for photographers, answered reporters’ questions and signed basketballs and other collectibles.

Odom needed crutches to get around, however, looking as helpless as he had when the season ended in April. His sprained right ankle is no closer to being sound enough for him to play than it was last spring.

There’s no timetable for Odom’s return, although he hinted that it might be December before he can be a regular contributor. It’s been a week since a hard cast came off and was replaced by a soft one.

“Obviously, he’s one of our best players, if not our best,” Coach Alvin Gentry said the day before the team opened training camp.

“I would like to see him ready to go, but you deal with it. We have to stay on top of his rehab. I don’t think it’s anybody on the team’s fault that it didn’t heal properly. [Odom] has to make sure he does his part. We have the [medical] people to take him through his rehab and get him back out there.

“But the main responsibility falls on Lamar.”

Elton Brand, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery last week, and Keyon Dooling, who has an ankle injury, also won’t be ready for the opening of training camp today at Palm Desert. But it’s Odom’s ankle that concerns the team most.

“I have no idea,” Odom said when asked when he believed he would play again. “It’s a bad injury. All I can do is give it time to heal and be ready to play in the second part of the season.... I want to be healthy at the end of December and January, when we have to make our push for the playoffs. I can’t get too down just because I hurt my foot. There’s a lot worse things going on in the world. Don’t you watch CNN?”

More than one Clipper official complained privately during the off-season that Odom was not taking his rehabilitation sessions as seriously as the team had hoped, and it was feared that he would not be fit to play once training camp began.

And that was before Odom reinjured his ankle while working out at Loyola Marymount.

He originally hurt it after stepping on a stray basketball while attempting a dunk in February. That was after he had injured his left wrist--and eventually needed surgery--after taking a fall in a December game against the Detroit Pistons. And that was a month after the NBA had suspended him for eight games for violating the league’s anti-drug policy for the second time in less than a year.

Odom hasn’t played since Jan. 18.

Pressed for an anticipated date for Odom’s return, Gentry said he couldn’t give one.

“It all depends on how his rehab goes,” Gentry said. “With Lamar, it’s a wait-and-see thing. It’s hard to put a definitive number on when he will be back. He has to make sure he does his part.”

Gentry had hoped that Odom would be ready to join his teammates today because the coach has a few new ideas about how to improve the team’s play after last season’s 39-43 record and ninth-place finish in the Western Conference, five games out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

With the addition of point guard Andre Miller in an off-season trade that sent Darius Miles to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Gentry hopes to increase the Clippers’ defensive pressure.

“It’s tough,” Gentry said, speaking of Odom and the other injured Clippers. “Obviously, we won’t have those guys out there [today]. They won’t have their timing down. Training camp is where you develop team chemistry and learn to play together.”

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For the record, Quentin Richardson made it clear that the double tap of his fists to his forehead to celebrate a key play will continue, even with Miles in Cleveland.

“He’ll represent on the East Coast and I’ll represent on the West Coast,” Richardson said.

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The Clippers signed four free agents Monday: guard Jason Crowe, forwards Mike Batiste and James Head and center Jason Lawson. There are 19 players on the training camp roster.