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Report: Lamar Odom conscious, breathing on his own

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Lamar Odom has regained consciousness and is breathing on his own in a Las Vegas hospital, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.

Odom, who was admitted to the facility Tuesday, is no longer using a breathing tube but remains in critical condition, Shelburne added.

Multiple reports have indicated that Odom's condition is slowly improving. The 14-year NBA forward apparently appeared responsive Thursday, following reports that he had made "small developments" on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old was found unresponsive at a Nevada brothel Tuesday. The Nye County Sheriff's Office, which first responded on the scene at Love Ranch in Crystal, Nev. on Tuesday, said Wednesday that Odom used cocaine and sexual enhancement supplements before being found unconscious with blood and a white substance coming from his nose and mouth.

Those close to Odom are hopeful that he didn't suffer brain damage due to a possible overdose, according to ESPN.

Odom was visited at the hospital by former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant, among others, and has received an outpouring of love and support from the basketball community.

Related: NBA players react to news of Lamar Odom's hospitalization

His estranged wife Khloe Kardashian, now dating Houston Rockets star James Harden, has also reportedly been by his side. Kardashian filed for divorce from Odom in 2013 but it hasn't been finalized, and she's making medical decisions on Odom's behalf, according to a report from CNN.

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 6-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.

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