Odom gives it a lot of thought, decides to shoot

He has been a big tease, the basketball player who has the ability to score, rebound, pass the ball and still leave everyone frustrated.

Perched on the verge of greatness, Lamar Odom has yet to take the next step, but now it’s time.

It has been a running argument here since early into his Clippers career and before he ever became a complementary Laker -- the difference in opinion boiling down to just a few words each.

Page 2: “Shoot the ball more, Lamar.”

Odom: “There’s so much more to the game.”

And so it went -- until Wednesday’s major breakthrough.

“I’m going to focus now on shooting the ball more,” he said. “But it’s not because I heard it from you; it’s because I heard it from Phil Jackson. He wants me to score more.”

And just where do you think Phil Jackson got that idea?

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TAKE A lifetime of interviewing athletes, and there aren’t many more approachable, confounding or likable as Odom.

He’s only 28, but already it has been a remarkable and trying journey. He lost his mother at age 12, “and at a time when we were just becoming friends,” he said.

His grandmother took over, and he now speaks of her like the church might a saint, losing her on her 80th birthday -- a date that would come back to bite him again.

A year ago this past June, on his grandmother’s birthday, his 6-month-old son, Jayden, suffocated in his crib.

“I had two children already and I had been through the process before,” Odom said. “So I was expecting my 6-month-old son to have a first birthday, to have a first Christmas.”

He is still a father, his 6-year-old son, Lamar Jr., waking up every morning, he said, and telling him that he has talked to Jayden.

“Whew, it takes the wind out of me every time he tells me that,” Odom said, while admitting he also talks to Jayden.

This year he moved out of his Long Island home as well as the Los Angeles-area home he occupied during the basketball season. Too many memories, he said. “I deal with it every day.

“I couldn’t really take seeing cribs around, baby things and just wanted to start over,” he said. “I’ve still got pictures, a little tattoo on my chest and a day doesn’t go by . . .”

It’s that openness, and his vulnerability, that have made him such a favorite with those fortunate to get to know him on a personal level. For everyone else, though, no matter what the relationship, the question is the same: How does someone cope with such devastation?

“With the situation I found closure early, and that helped,” he said. “I was lucky to spend some time with him while he was gone. I’m the one who viewed his body. I saw my mother take her last breath, and it just all helped me spiritually to deal with it.”

It would seem to be a mystery -- how Odom remains so positive and upbeat, but no mystery at all, he said, if you had the chance to meet his grandmother.

“The grace that my grandmother walked with -- is definitely with me to this day,” he said.

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YOU GET to know Lamar Odom and you want to root for him. Or boo him.

In the last few weeks, there have been more boos than cheers, the big tease at times falling woefully short of Lakers fans’ expectations.

The other night against Seattle, he was wide open to shoot, the crowd pleading with him to do so, but he passed. When it came back to him a few seconds later, he shot and missed -- the crowd and hesitation taking its toll.

It was classic frustrating Odom, thinking too much and looking to make a pass when everyone else expected a great player to knock down the open shot.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” he admitted in reliving the play. “I was thinking it was early in the shot clock, we’ve got a young team, and tempo is important. . . . “

And blah, blah, blah. When he said later, “I will make a great coach someday because I know every position on the floor,” it might also explain why he will never be a great player.

“Oh, that’s cold,” laughed Odom. “A knife in the back, and blood everywhere.”

But then that’s been the argument for years now, versatility versus more shot attempts, and stop thinking so much and just put the ball in the hole.

Anyone who watched him play at an All-Star level to start last season, and then again against Phoenix in the playoffs with a shoulder requiring post-season surgery, knows what he’s capable of doing when placing a premium on scoring.

“I grew up as a kid wanting to be Magic rather than Michael,” said Odom, who said today he loves watching Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James -- undoubtedly dreaming of passing them the ball.

“I can do whatever the coach wants me to do,” he insisted, “and if he wants me to score more now, I will score more.”

That’s one more small step for Lakers fans, and a pretty good bet Odom will get hurt again.

“You know what’s so funny, I’ll be with some of my friends watching football and I’ll hear someone say, ‘He’s always hurt -- to heck with him.’ And I’ll be like -- that’s me?

“But it just happens. It’s inevitable for some players. It’s like why do some people die young, and some don’t? There’s no answer for it.”

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HE SAID he’s going to shoot more, and we know who won that argument. Maybe it will finally earn him some All-Star consideration. Maybe he will no longer be trade bait.

There was a soccer game on TV in the background. He noticed it, and said, “OK, so that’s going to be my goal as I sit here watching this soccer game. My goal is going to be to score more.”

Odom’s newfound desire to score, though, might have been a lot more encouraging had it been an Arena League Football game on TV rather than a game where someone puts the ball in the net once, and calls it a good night.

But then once a tease, always a tease?

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.

To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.