Sheriff: Lamar Odom found unresponsive at Nevada brothel
PAHRUMP, Nev. -- Authorities say former NBA and reality TV star Lamar Odom has been hospitalized after he was found unconscious at a Nevada brothel.
Nye County Sheriff Sharon A. Wehrly says the department got a call Tuesday afternoon requesting an ambulance for an unresponsive man at the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada about 70 miles outside of Las Vegas.
A sheriff's statement says Odom was stabilized and taken to Desert View Hospital in nearby Pahrump.
Officials then tried to have him flown to a Las Vegas hospital, but he was too tall for the helicopter that was available and he was driven by ambulance.
Back in 2013, less than a week after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, Odom checked into a treatment facility near Los Angeles. Less than 24 hours day later, he checked out of the facility.
The news of Lamar being found unconscious in a brothel in Nevada "isn't shocking," a Kardashian family source tells E! News, "but it is sad." Our insider explains that Khloe Kardashion had cut off contact with Lamar in the summer and she has been worried about Lamar for a very long time."
Odom is a former player for the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks NBA teams. He won two NBA championships with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010; he last played in the NBA in 2013. He saw recent reality TV fame through his four-year marriage to Khloe Kardashian.
Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013, citing irreconcilable differences.
The two were married in 2009 in a large ceremony that was taped for the E! network, following a whirlwind engagement that was also filmed.
Some troubles that met Odom before and during his NBA career appeared to worsen after he left the league, and included a no-contest plea to drunken driving shortly before his divorce.
Odom most recently played for the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2012-13 season, his second stint with the team. He averaged 4.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists playing all 82 games. He became a free agent in July 2013 but no other NBA team signed him.
In February 2014, Odom signed with a Spanish team on a two-month deal but a month later he returned to the U.S. because of a back injury. That April, he signed with the New York Knicks for what remained in the season, but he didn't appear in their final game and was waived that July.
He also played for Miami, the Lakers and Dallas.
Odom was suspended during the 2000-01 season for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy for the second time in eight months. During the 2010-11 season, a cousin he was close to died and Odom was a passenger in a vehicle involved in an accident in New York that killed a cyclist.
Odom played one season at Rhode Island before being drafted in the first round with the No. 4 overall pick by the Clippers in the 1999 NBA draft. He was named to the All-Rookie team and played four seasons with the team before becoming a restricted free agent and signing with Miami.
He helped the U.S. win a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Born Lamar Joseph Odom on Nov. 6, 1979, in New York City, he was raised by his grandmother after his mother died of cancer when he was 12. His father was a drug addict.
In 2006, Odom's 6-month-old son Jayden died from SIDS while sleeping in his crib in New York.
He has a daughter, Destiny, and a son Lamar Jr., from a previous relationship.