Lamar Did The Coolest Thing

LA Times: On TNT's pregame show, they followed Lamar Odom as he walked from his downtown loft all the way to Staples Center to play game 2 against the Houston Rockets. Odom decided to take the 2 mile walk after learning that he was going to be a starter for Game 2. This has got to be one of the coolest things that I've heard a pro athlete do before a big time play-off game.

He just wanted to be with the people, he said, his bald head covered in sweat, his white shirt drenched as Odom walked among business folks, tourists and the homeless from an apartment just off Hope -- and how fitting is that -- to Staples Center.

Two more games in Houston, back here on Tuesday, and the way the Lakers played Game 2, the line has to form behind Moses just off Hope once again, doesn't it, if only for superstitious reasons?

"People don't get to see us a lot because we're treated like celebrities and stars," he said, shouts of encouragement coming at him from car after car. "So you change that by letting them see you and maybe touch you."

He tried it once before, Easter Sunday, but security had to be called to keep the mob from swallowing him. The Lakers told him never again, but he was going to start this game, people energize him and when he chooses, he's unstoppable.

And so he walked, at one point joined by TNT's CraigSager and Sager's lilac shoes -- and try walking a mile in downtown L.A. in those things.