Way back in 1996, Lamar Odom walked into the gymnasium at Christ the King High School, which sits stuffed between a couple cemeteries and some railroad tracks in Queens, N.Y.
He was impossibly gangly back then. Impossibly talented, too. Six-foot-10 with Pterodactyl arms yet wrists so soft he could drain 3-pointers, even if he preferred to pass.
The hype surrounding him was immense. This was New York after all, where good gets sold as great and great as some kind of can't-miss legend.