Lamar Odom Slams Stephen Smith For Saying He Was On Crack When New York Knicks Signed Him

Lamar Odom recently fired back at Stephen A. Smith after the latter claimed that the former New York Knicks player was on crack.

During a recent interview on ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith was talking about the president of New York Knicks, Phil Jackson, when he said, “His first move as executive of the New York Knicks was to sign Lamar Odom, who was on crack!”

Read: Lamar Odom’s daughter says his relationship with Khloe Kardashian was “toxic”

On June 23, Odom’s counsel, Saam Zangeneh, wrote a letter to ESPN addressing Smith’s allegations. Zangeneh stressed the fact that his client passed all of the necessary tests before he was signed under the popular team. But this wasn’t the main focus of his memo. Instead, Zangeneh questioned how Smith’s statement could impact other professional athletes who are also dealing with addiction.

Towards the end of his letter, Zangeneh shared some details on how Odom has been trying to change his life for the better. A day before Smith’s June 21 interview, Odom went to a rehab facility in Davie, Florida. While there, he spoke to the patients at Live Free Institute and shared his story with the young people at the institution. Zangeneh is also requesting the sports network to take proper action against Smith.

On Saturday, June 24, Odom shared a copy of the letter on his Twitter account. He used the hashtags “slander” and “I hope we are better than this.”

Meanwhile, Smith responded to his critics and clarified that Odom wasn’t the target of his attack. “Because of my personal affection for Lamar Odom – and only for that reason – I want to return to my comments about something I’ve repeated quite often over the last few days: the flagrant ineptitude that I feel has been on continual display by Knicks President Phil Jackson. My comments were not to put any more focus on Lamar Odom’s much publicized drug use and addiction. He was not the target of my ire…. Lamar Odom is simply one of the nicest athletes any of us have encountered, and has always been a gentleman to everyone in NBA circles – including me – which is something I’ve repeated throughout the years,” he said (via Deadspin).