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Ted Green: Lamar Odom’s agent Jeff Schwartz needs to listen up

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Last week, I wrote that it was time for the Lakers to step up and make Lamar Odom a reasonable, respectful offer.

Now that they have, apparently offering L.O. more than $9 million a year for at least three years, it’s now time for Lamar’s agent to wake up.

Yes, wake up, Jeff Schwartz. In Miami or Memphis, Lamar Odom is irrelevant, a face in the crowd, part of the passing parade.

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With the Lakers, he’s a rock star, an important championship piece and a player revered by the city. In other words, an athlete who absolutely matters.

So listen up, Mr. Schwartz, and jot this down on your 8-by-10 pad:

Something approaching, say, $28 million for three years is good money. Actually, it’s great money for a guy who is important to the Lakers, true, but who is never going to be better than the third or even fourth option and who, additionally, is probably going to be asked to come off of the bench.

What’s more, the Lakers’ offer would make Lamar the highest paid sixth man in the league. Wait, let me write that with an exclamation point. Highest paid sixth man in the league! Not even Manu Ginobili of the Spurs, a true all-star, makes more. Ginobili gets $8.67 million on a six-year deal he signed several seasons back.

More per year than Manu Ginobili? I’d say that’s a VERY fair offer, Mr. Schwartz.

For a few more million that Lamar is never going to be able to spend in three lifetimes if he is smart and prudent, what are you going to do, Jeff Schwartz, exile him to Miami?

Do you realize how close that is to the Bermuda Triangle, where people have been known to disappear?

Your job, Mr. Schwartz, is to help expedite getting a good salary for Lamar, and that you appear to have accomplished. Job well done.

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But don’t get greedy and blow the deal. Don’t make this a pointless and macho mano a mano negotiation, in which the sins of ego and vanity take over, pushing the Lakers to the point where an owner with a virtually impeccable track record, such as Jerry Buss, pulls it off the table.

This isn’t serving the interests of Lamar Odom. This is attempting to increase the size of your commission check. This, Mr. Schwartz, would be abject greed and stupidity.

This applies to you, Mr. Schwartz and to every other agent out there: Take your sizable cut; congratulate your client on making the smart, thoughtful, bigger-picture decision; and be thankful you don’t actually have to work for a living.

And Lamar, oh lovable Laker of the cool Sgt. Pepper jackets: Pull your head out of the sand and take control of what your agent is doing. Don’t just sit home and tell the newspapers that money is a ‘touchy subject’ Trust your agent, you hired him, but not implicitly. Make sure he isn’t so stubborn and hardheaded that he writes you a one-way ticket out of town.

If there’s one thing you should have learned by now, L.O., it’s that the only ones you can really trust in any of this Laker business are Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in the fourth quarter.

-- Ted Green


Green formerly covered the Lakers for the L.A. Times. He is currently senior sports producer for KTLA Prime News.


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