Lamar Odom “Afraid” to Reach Out to Khloe Kardashian Again
Lamar Odom is hoping to help others with their own sobriety journeys.
The former NBA star, who’s been open about his past struggles with substance abuse, has launched Odom Wellness Treatment Centers, a collection of facilities in Southern California that offer rehabilitation programs for those struggling with addiction, according to its website.
On April 3, Odom posted a photo of himself alongside his partners and staff at one of his three treatment centers. “So Blessed,” he captioned the image. “God saved me, so I can save others.”
The endeavor comes more than seven years after Odom’s near-fatal overdose at a Nevada brothel in 2015. The harrowing ordeal—during which Odom suffered a number of health issues, including kidney failure—led him to get sober.
“When God had saved me from that accident, I was trying to find my purpose—and I think I may have found it,” he explained of his decision to invest in the facilities during a recent appearance on TMZ Live. “I know I have found it.”
For Odom, seeing others embark on their own road to addiction recovery is “more satisfying than people telling me what a great basketball player that I was.”
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“For me to have rehabilitation centers and wellness centers is a big deal,” he added. “I want to put them everywhere. Drugs are bad everywhere.”
And Odom isn’t afraid to share his story. After all, the athlete’s sobriety journey was documented in his memoir Darkness to Light, a book his ex-wife Khloe Kardashian praised for its honest take on addiction.
“A lot of this stuff wasn’t my place to ever talk about, but it’s definitely his place as this happened to him,” the Good American mogul said the memoir in a 2019 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. “I actually think it’s really courageous to talk about the amount of addiction that he’s had.”