USA - Selfless Odom may be just what Team USA needs

From www.nba.com
Download source here

The conversation was about a potential spot with Team USA at the world championships this summer, about how Lamar Odom has a chance to make it to Turkey and maybe stick for the 2012 Olympics despite never being an All-Star, despite not being considered a superstar.

He stopped the discussion.

Odom, seated in front of his locker, looked up and cracked a smile.

"It probably means that I am on the superstar level," he said.

Making the USA Basketball cut will be making a statement for Odom, and so one of the intriguing cases for Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski gets that much more interesting.

Odom, a part-time starter for the Lakers -- even then mostly because of injuries to others -- has the ultimate stamp of respect from the people putting together the team that supposedly represents the best of the United States. He doesn't have the truest of raw talent. But he has what it takes to win.

His complementary role in Los Angeles, with the defending NBA champs, has led to the notion that he can be a difference-maker on a global scale. He's not a superstar, but he's a key part on the league's best team. So doesn't that make him a superstar?

"A different superstar," Odom said. "A selfless one. One who's willing to do anything it really takes to help his team win."

He knows that is the very selling point. On a roster and stat sheet expected to be ruled by Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, Odom's versatility could fit just as well into the international game this August and September. He can chase opposing bigs when they start firing away from the perimeter, as will happen, or he can move to the backcourt and shoot over the guards, or, at 6-foot-10, he can handle the ball when the U.S. goes up against zone defenses, which it is sure to face a lot.

Zero All-Star appearances, many selling points.

"You see he's really a consistent outside shooter now," said Bryant, a teammate now and perhaps later. "His ballhandling. His ability to guard one through five positions. And the way that we play, especially dealing with the zones, you see how we use Chris Bosh a great deal, being able to play outside, inside. I could see Coach K using him at the five even. It's that versatility that I think is very attractive."

"In the European game," Odom said, "the post players tend to play outside, tend to do different things from the forward position. The ability to pass the ball internally, to be able to make plays, to rebound the ball and push it as well as shoot the outside shot, guard the perimeter, guard the post. Just do a little bit of everything. Also, last year I won a championship, so I consider myself a winner. And I'm willing to give up myself to better the team."

Odom is just a Team USA candidate now.The 27 players will have a Las Vegas training camp in the summer, exhibition games will be played at Thomas & Mack Center and probably New York, more exhibition games will be played in Europe as the gold-medal favorites work their way to Turkey. Cuts will be made along the way. Several superstars will obviously make the final roster. Odom will need to earn his spot.

He will go to Las Vegas, though, with the experience of winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, an advantage when Colangelo has been clear in wanting to reward players with a history in the program. Plus, heading into what will be an extended schedule when the exhibition tour is factored in, followed by the tournament itself that United States has not won since 1994, Odom owns the other meaningful experience of having played in countless big games. The pressure of the international stage will not faze him.

Odom is scoring 10.1 points, pulling down 10 rebounds, handing out 3.5 assists and is shooting 44.6 percent in 31.2 minutes while starting in 25 of his 57 appearances for the Lakers. That's just a run-up to what might happen this summer.

"It's a perfect opportunity," Odom said. "For the way I play basketball, it's a really big compliment. Especially for a guy who has never made an All-Star team ..."