There’s No Escape for Former Clippers

By now Lamar Odom must realize the Clipper Curse is far-reaching.

You can travel from one side of the continent to the other, to a city at the bottom tip of the country, and you can’t escape it.

Odom wanted to play for one of the top coaches in NBA history. He wound up playing for a guy who can’t even get top billing at the Van Gundy family reunion.

He wanted to escape the culture of losing that surrounds the Clippers. He wound up on the worst team in the NBA, a team that has only half as many victories as your Los Angeles Clippers.

“If they were to win the championship, I would be happy for Q [Quentin Richardson], Keyon Dooling, all of those guys,” said Odom, who was back in town for the Miami Heat’s game against the Lakers Sunday. “Honestly. Genuinely.”

He doesn’t have to worry about that happening, because the Clippers have no honest or genuine chance of winning a title.

When the Clippers and their players split ways, it usually turns out bad for both parties -- just like “Romeo and Juliet.” The Clippers keep on being the Clippers. And none of the players who leave go on to greater personal glory. The best an ex-Clipper can expect is a reduced role on a successful team. (See Bill Walton and Ron Harper.)

Odom’s departure this summer was nasty, even by Clipper standards. When the Miami Heat signed the restricted free agent to a six-year, $63-million offer sheet, Odom warned the Clippers that if they matched it and retained his services they would have a “disgruntled employee” on their hands.

In the Clippers’ announcement that they would allow Odom to leave, General Manager Elgin Baylor made a point of saying it was because there were “issues of character and other risks involved.”

That will be Odom’s legacy in Los Angeles after he sat out 86 games over his last two years because of ankle and wrist injuries and two suspensions for violations of the league’s drug policy.

Of course, the Clippers haven’t found a versatile 6-foot-10 forward who can give them 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists a night, either.

Odom didn’t say anything inflammatory before the Heat’s game against the Lakers on Sunday.

“Sometimes the business is a little nasty,” Odom said. “It’s nothing personal. I don’t take it personal.”

He spent so much time saying this was business, not personal, it was as if he watched “The Godfather” DVD over and over on the Heat’s flight to Los Angeles.

“I think it was just time for both of us,” Odom said. “Watching them now, they’re doing well, they’re playing well. It’s nothing personal. It was time for me to go.

“It was hard. Injuries, everything that happened, I just felt it was time for me to change my surroundings.”

Dennis Johnson, the former Clipper assistant and interim head coach who watched Sunday’s game in his new role as Portland Trail Blazer scout, said Odom “thought it was important for him to start over.”

“I’ve talked to him a couple of times,” Johnson said of Odom. “He seems a lot happier.”

But it’s not Odom’s dream situation. When he signed he gushed about the chance to play for a coach such as Pat Riley, and Riley talked about the chance to coach a guy who reminded him of Magic Johnson.

Then Riley resigned as head coach and turned the reins over to Stan Van Gundy (Jeff’s brother), four days before the season started.

“It was shocking,” Odom said. “I wouldn’t say [I was] let down. I was taken by surprise. Riles, I respect him so much as a man, that if he tells me he has to do something, I respect his decision.”

Riley must have known how bad this team would be. The Heat lost its first seven games of the season. It won two home games before losing to the Lakers by a 99-77 score Sunday night.

Meanwhile the Clippers are off to a 4-2 start.

Odom couldn’t bring himself to watch any of their first five games.

“Probably mixed emotions,” Odom said. “I had to get over it a little bit.”

Finally, back home at his Marina del Rey condominium Saturday night, he watched the Clippers beat the Orlando Magic.

He hasn’t completely divorced himself from the team he played with for the first four years of his career. At first he found himself waking up in Miami, still surprised to be with a new team.

In his first trip back to Staples Center on Sunday he mistakenly walked into the Laker locker room before the game, assuming that’s where the other team got dressed. Then he glanced at his old team’s blue locker-room door as he made his way down to the visitor’s room. In the first two timeouts of the game he instinctively wandered toward the northern bench, which is where the home team sits.

Odom says he’s more mature now, that “I’m a year older. The maturing process is steadily growing, every day. I’m probably a lot more focused because of some of the things I’ve gone through. I’ve learned from a lot of them.”

These are things the Clippers have heard before, and they stopped believing them. He had familiar numbers of 18 points and nine rebounds Sunday. The Heat had a familiar result.

He sprained an ankle in his first game with the Heat, perhaps an indication that his problems will follow him to Miami. And the Clippers lost Elton Brand to a stress fracture in their opener.

You can separate Odom from the Clippers, but you can’t keep them their destinies.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.