Lamar Odom taken to hospital after being found unconscious
Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom was taken to hospital after being found unconscious Tuesday afternoon.
Odom was found unresponsive at the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nev., according to a statement from the Nye County Sheriff's Office. He was stabilized by paramedics before being transported to Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas for further treatment.
Related: NBA players react to news of Lamar Odom's hospitalization
The cause for Odom's hospitalization is unclear, but Love Ranch owner Dennis Hof indicated to Buzzfeed News that Odom might have overdosed on herbal male enhancement supplements.
"He just wanted to get away, have a good time and relax," Hof told The Associated Press, saying that Odom seemed "happy" while visiting. "It's incredibly sad."
"He said he was just trying to get away from people so he could have some time to himself without the pressures of being who he is," Hof added to Us Magazine.
The Lakers are actively monitoring the situation, according to Bill Oram of the OC Register, and Kobe Bryant and general manager Mitch Kupchak reportedly visited Odom on Tuesday night. Odom's estranged wife Khloe Kardashian, who filed for divorce in 2013 and is currently the girlfriend of Houston Rockets star James Harden, is reportedly by Odom's side.
Odom's hospitalization was first reported by TMZ Sports, who also report that Odom is in a coma and is having issues with his heart, kidneys, and lungs.
"Family and friends are extremely concerned for Lamar," publicist Eve Sarkisyan told Us Magazine in a statement. "Please don't listen to the false information being circulated unofficially."
Tragedy has seemingly followed Odom, who lost his mother to cancer when he was 12 and was raised by his grandmother, as his father was an absentee drug addict. His grandmother passed away in 2003. In 2006, he lost his six-month-old son, Jayden, to SIDS, and was shot at during a robbery in his old neighborhood weeks after the funeral. He lost a close cousin in 2011, and was a passenger in a vehicle that left a teenager dead in an accident later that year.
"Some of the things I've been through, a lot of people wouldn't have been able to stick it out, mentally," Odom told SLAM in 2010. "So many things have happened to me but I wouldn’t do anything over, because if I did, it wouldn’t be my story. It’s what makes me a unique individual."
Since his departure from the league, Odom has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and repeatedly tied to reports of illicit drug use. In 2000-01, he was suspended for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy for a second time in an eight-month span.
The former fourth overall pick last played in the NBA in 2012-13, when he helped the Los Angeles Clippers reach the Western Conference semifinals. Odom won two championships with the Lakers and was once named the league's Sixth Man of the Year (2010-11) in his underrated 14-year career, during which he essentially defined the role of point forward.