Lamar Odom’s life has long been laced with tragedy

Even before Lamar Odom was found unresponsive in a Nevada brothel Tuesday, the former Lakers champion and Clippers player had been repeatedly touched by losses that cut him so deeply he once contemplated quitting basketball.

“Death always seems to be around me,” Odom told the Los Angeles Times in 2011. “I’ve been burying people for a long time.”

Born in South Jamaica, Queens, 35-year-old Odom grew up during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic.

His father, a heroin addict, left the family when Odom was young, and his mother died of colon cancer when he was 12 years old. His grandmother, who raised him in Queens, died in 2003, when Odom was 23.

Three years later, Odom’s nearly 7-month-old son died of sudden infant death syndrome while sleeping in his crib.

Overwhelmed with grief, Odom contemplated leaving the game.

Instead, he poured himself into his various passions, including his record label, Rich Soil Entertainment, and a line of Christian-themed apparel, Son of Man.

He wore No. 7 on his jersey because his grandmother had always believed it was her lucky number. He wore a tattoo of his son, Jayden, on his chest above his heart, and had an image of his mother tattooed on his back.

Before every Lakers game, Odom was known to write his family’s names on his white, purple and gold Nikes: “Cathy,” for his mother, “Mildred,” his grandmother, and “Jayden.” His ritual was well-known among coaches and teammates.

Reliving the tragedies seemed to inspire the 6-foot-10-inch forward on the court.

“Just the way that I try to just always remember them,” Odom once told The Times. “As time goes by, sometimes it’s human nature to forget.”

Odom was in New York in July 2011 for a Nike commercial shoot when his 24-year-old cousin was shot and killed. Odom assumed many of the responsibilities his late grandmother would have: Serving as head of the family, making funeral arrangements. It was a burden that weighed heavily on him.

The day after the funeral, Odom was in the back seat of an SUV on his way to Queens when the car struck a motorcyclist. The motorcycle careened out of control and hit a 15-year-old pedestrian, who died from head injuries the next day.

“I’m sitting in the car looking him right in the face. I’m like, ‘I think he’s gone,’” Odom recalled to The Times in 2011.

“I think the effects of seeing [my cousin] die and then watching this kid die, it beat me down,” he told The Times then. “I consider myself a little weak. I thought I was breaking down mentally. I’m doing a lot of reflecting.”

Odom credited his “very strong wife,” Khloe Kardashian, as the source of his strength as he dealt with the twin tragedies. They wed in 2009, and Odom was a vital part of the Lakers’ 2009 and 2010 championships. He said he owed much of his success during that period to their marriage and her stabilizing influence.

“You know how things can just line up in life?” told Lakers.com in 2011. “I met Khloe at the perfect time. The stability she and her family bring me is why I’m at peace. I think I have gotten to a new point as a man, as a father, as a basketball player.”

But things quickly spiraled out of control for Odom after rumors of Odom’s drug use and infidelity preceded the unraveling of their marriage in 2013.

That year, there were reports that Odom had gone missing after a fight with Kardashian. The following week, he was involved in a minor car accident involving a Los Angeles Times reporter and was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after California Highway Patrol officers spotted him on the 101 Freeway driving “in a serpentine manner.”

Kardashian filed for divorce on Dec. 13, 2013, but the process stretched on almost two years. The divorce was finalized in July.

In early August, paparazzi caught Odom confronting his ex outside a Beverly Hills gym and demanding that she talk to him.

“I love Lamar and care about him a lot. It makes me feel good to hear his voice and know that he’s OK,” Khloe Kardashian said during the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” episode that aired Sunday.

“I’m really on high alert for Lamar,” she said, “because, I mean, anything I think will set him to spiral and that’s kind of the last thing I want for him.”

Staff writer Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report.

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