There comes a time when someone will say enough is enough. Well, Lakers owner Jerry Buss came to that point last week when he reportedly removed the Lakers offer of 3 years at $9 million a year from the table for free agent Lamar Odom. Now how did it get to this point? When the Lakers essentially had no plans of bringing back Trevor Ariza, they at least had a back up plan in Ron Artest. I am in no means saying I’d rather have Artest, but it was a decent move when you lose Ariza. But in the Odom situation, what would the back up plan be. Ric Bucher of ESPN said when news of this broke two names I would never imagine being Lakers. Joe Smith and Drew Gooden. Ewww. No disrespect to them, but if those are the options to replace Odom you can forget it.

Cooler heads have to prevail here. Dr. Buss needs to put the offer back on the table and wait for Odom to realize that will be the best offer for him. What happened to the team player in Odom when he said,

“As long as I can keep going to the NBA Finals, count me in.”

The best offer Lamar could get is from Portland. They still have plenty of cap space, but surprisingly have shown little interest in Odom. Dallas and Miami have talked to Lamar, but can only offer the mid level exception of just under $6 million a year to him. Now if you do the math that is only $3 million more than the Lakers offer for two more years. Plus, Miami and Dallas are not considered power houses to win a title. Do you want to win or not Lamar?

It has been reported that in the last twenty four hours Jerry Buss has talked to Lamar and that Miami has already offered him a contract of $34 million over five years. If Jerry puts another year on his offer, he will have to take it. Personally, I would not be holding out like this. It’s the freaking Lakers. That three year deal is very good. Plus you’ll be playing for the Lakers. Not their JV cousins aka the Clippers. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of athletes coming out to essentially say it is not about the money, I just want to win. The real translation is that it is always about the money and I do want to win at the same time. You can’t have both, well most of the time. Think real hard about it Lamar and don’t forget that I had your back with your candy addiction. Free candy as a Laker should be the incentive for his new contract Jerry. Where’s Wonka when you need him?