He was asleep, dreaming about playing basketball somewhere, preferably back with the Lakers — with his cellphone turned off — unaware his agent had worked out a deal.
When Lamar Odom awoke Thursday, the free-agent forward turned on his phone and heard the message from his agent, Jeff Schwartz:

"You’re still a Laker," the message said.

Odom called his agent back to confirm it. Odom and the Lakers had agreed on a four-year deal, reportedly for $33 million, with a team option for the final year.

The versatile 6-foot-10 forward will earn less than the last Lakers offer of about $36 million over four years, but that offer was pulled off the table two weeks ago by owner Jerry Buss.

But after a month of talking, posturing, having the Lakers’ offer taken away and then both sides resuming negotiations, and with the Miami Heat making a push to sign him, Odom is back with the Lakers.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-odom31-2009jul31,0,5679779.story

As the story goes, team president Pat Riley was in a room a few months back with dozens of Miami Heat fans on the verge of canceling their season tickets.
The reasons they gave ranged from having to make sacrifices in a slumping economy to the Heat’s gradual drop-off since its lone NBA title in 2006.

Riley listened to each concern, rubbed his chin and launched his best sales pitch.

“I had an opportunity to speak with three groups that were on the fence for a number of reasons — the economy, the product, the price,” Riley said as he recalled the impact of his message. “And they all renewed. So just get in a room and let me talk.”

If only things were that simple with the team’s ongoing efforts to recruit free agent forward Lamar Odom.

After moving into striking distance of acquiring its top free agent target, the Heat continued Tuesday to play the waiting game for Odom, who is grappling with a decision to sign with Miami or return to the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Both teams are hopeful of a decision from Odom within the next few days, according to multiple sources.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/basketball/story/1161169.html

Mavs owner Mark Cuban, in a Monday night interview on NBA TV, said that Dallas has been in contact with the agent for Lakers free agent Lamar Odom.“There are a lot of guys who haven’t been signed,’’ Cuban told David Aldridge, “so we’re talking to everybody. We’re talking to Lamar Odom’s agent in case he decides not to go back to LA. … which, who knows if there’s an opportunity there. …’’

Now, Mark mentions this in a throwaway manner. It’s almost as if he simply using Odom as an example of the most fanciful of the possibilities that are still out there.

But let’s play Amateur GM again here: When it comes to the Mavs and Lamar Odom, there is definitely an opportunity there.

We break it down:

ARE WE PIPEDREAMING?

Let’s get this out of the way first: In our pursuit of Mavs transaction news … in our anticipation of Mavs transaction news … we chase both what they are doing and thinking and what they potentially could/should be thinking. We are not chasing rainbows here, but rather examining pathways. And we do so with the belief that Dallas has a keen awareness of the availability of such scenarios.

That doesn’t mean such a transaction will happen; heck, it doesn’t even mean such a transaction is being explored. It simply means we’re pointing out a pathway worth exploration – and in this case, a very specific way to navigate that pathway.

http://www.dallasbasketball.com/fullColumn.php?id=1835