It’s great to be a Los Angeles Laker these days, especially when your name is Lamar Odom. You’re team is the defending world champions and it seems like everywhere you go, you are the toast of the town.

Odom is certainly soaking in all the attention being thrown his way, and he now has someone to share it with – girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.

The two were spotted leaving popular Beverly Hills restaurant STK hand-in-hand on Sept. 3, and besieged by paparazzi as they waited outside of the restaurant. They left the location in Odom’s Mercedes. The couple was also seen on the red carpet at the Sept. 9 premiere of “Whiteout,” which stars Kate Beckinsale. The event was held at Mann Village Theatre in Westwood.

Us Weekly and Access Hollywood have both confirmed the two are romantically involved.

Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom and reality TV star Khloe Kardashian were recently spotted at a Beverly Hills restaurant.

Kardashian, 25, currently stars in the reality show “Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami,” with her older sister Kourtney. Khloe is following in the footsteps of older sister, Kim, who had been dating New Orleans Saints star Reggie Bush. All three sisters starred on the E! reality show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

Lamar, 29, recently signed a four-year, $30 million contract to stay with the Lakers, and Kardashian recently had a body makeover and is beginning to match the sexy bod of her more famous sister, Kim. She had reportedly been dating another NBA player, Rashad McCants, before upgrading to Odom.

Odom is a New York native, but has been living in Los Angeles for quite some time now. He’s been spotted hanging with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko before a recent training session at the Pound4Pound Gym in Los Angeles.

While the 6-foot-10 Odom gears up for another NBA season, the 6-7 Klitschko is focused on his Sept. 26 bout with Cris Arreola. Klitschko will defend his WBC belt against the unbeaten, No. 1-ranked Arreola at Staples Center.

The Lakers report to training camp sometime in October and their first preseason game is Oct. 7 against Golden State at the Honda Center in Anaheim. They begin defense of their NBA title on Oct. 27 at Staples Center against the Clippers (7:30 p.m., TNT).

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Jerry Buss would like to re-sign Lamar Odom, but the Lakers owner is not willing to go all in to bring him back.

All the cards are on the table and it is now up to Dr. Jerry Buss to reveal his hand. Re-sign Lamar Odom or let him go to another team without compensation? That’s the million-dollar quandary facing the longtime owner of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Buss, a known poker player who is fearless when it comes to betting the future of the franchise, is playing a high-stakes game of “deal” or “no deal” with Odom and his agent Jeff Schwartz. Buss reasoned that he yanked the team’s previous offer – reportedly worth $27 to $30 million for three years – off the table was because he felt Odom and Schwartz were “too slow to respond” to what he thought was a fair contract. Odom and Schwartz originally asked for $50 million for five years, but that asking price is just too rich in today’s poor economy.

The Miami Heat are now actively pursuing Odom, and Yahoo! Sports reported that the free-agent forward is “leaning towards” the Heat unless the Lakers increase their offer.

This is familiar territory with Buss. On the heels of the Lakers getting swept by Detroit in the 2004 NBA Finals, he faced a similar dilemma when Shaquille O’Neal asked for an extension. Buss didn’t think O’Neal was worth the hassle so he placed all his chips on Kobe Bryant and traded O’Neal to Miami, banking on the fact that the three-time Finals MVP was on his last legs and does not have the power to lift a team to a championship.

Fold!

His gamble backfired as O’Neal won a championship with the Heat in 2006 and the Lakers had to deal with all the scrutiny and all the questions as to why O’Neal won a ring with another team. But Buss stood by his decision and basically stayed the course, even when his beloved franchise dropped to the second tier.

Then, in 2008, Buss found luck – or luck found him, depending on how you look at it – as the Lakers found a sucker in Memphis. The Grizzlies were looking to dump salary and gift-wrapped forward-center Pau Gasol to the Lakers for center Kwame Brown and guard Javaris Crittenton.

Royal flush!

With Gasol playing Robin to Kobe’s Batman, the Lakers vaulted back to the top and captured the NBA title this past June. It was the franchise’s 15th championship and the team’s ninth trophy with Buss at the helm.

The Lakers are optimistic that forward Lamar Odom will re-sign with the team.

Buss would love to bring Odom back, but he’s not willing to bet all his chips to make it happen. Remember, Bryant has his max deal, Bynum is on the books for $58 million and Gasol should also get an extension soon, so Buss is unwilling to go over the salary cap threshold and get hit by a steep luxury tax. Odom, who turns 30 in November, has made it known that returning to L.A. is his preference, but he’s also looking out for his financial future.

It’s the summer of 2004 revisited, a time when Lakers were still considered the dominant team in the league and re-signing O’Neal to pair with Bryant would have made L.A. title worthy. But Buss simply refused to put up with O’Neal’s and Bryant’s verbal sparring, and the old-school owner said “enough is enough” and sided with Bryant and sent O’Neal packing.

Now, it’s Odom’s turn to test Buss’ patience.

Enter the Miami Heat. Again.

Odom played one season in Miami and wouldn’t mind returning to South Beach to play alongside All-Star guard Dwyane Wade, a player close to Kobe’s skill level. Odom’s best season as a pro came in 2003-04 as a member of the Heat. Miami President Pat Riley likes what the versatile 6-10 forward brings to the table and so does Wade.

How serious is the Heat in acquiring Odom? Very. So serious that Wade is currently in Los Angeles to convince his former teammate to ditch the world champion Lakers, come back home to Miami and turn the Heat back into an Eastern Conference powerhouse.

Wade wrote on his Twitter page on Sunday: “I’m in LA to bring odom bac to miami with me lol lol lol. LA fans dnt get mad at me..”

So why is it taking so long for Odom to strike a deal with the Heat? Quite simply, he doesn’t want to leave L.A.

And besides, Odom going to Miami won’t necessarily guarantee the Heat an NBA title or even a trip the conference finals. The Heat has a logjam at the forward position and the team would have to trade either second-year player Michael Beasley or co-captain Udonis Haslem to make room for Odom.

But if Odom re-signs with L.A., the Lakers should be the heavy favorites to repeat as champs. Odom is insurance policy in case Andrew Bynum goes down again – which he has done the past two seasons. He complements Gasol extremely well because he doesn’t need to camp in the low block. Odom may not be a franchise player or even a secondary option but, as the third or fourth option, he is an absolute dynamite player.

Once cooler heads prevail – mainly Buss’ head – Odom and the Lakers will likely agree on a four-year deal around $36 million. For now, Buss will keep everyone guessing on his next move.

Check!

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The Lakers' terrific trio of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom are poised to win an NBA title. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

After sleep-walking through the first two rounds of the playoffs and the first four games of the Western Conference finals, the Lakers are now fully caffeinated and wide awake.

Pau Gasol is fully stretched, Lamar Odom is back to form and Kobe Bryant looks unstoppable. To borrow a line from the popular Nike Most Valuable Puppets commercials that features Kobe and LeBron James … “What makes his unstoppableness unstoppable?” Nobody knows.

So, cue the Lakers’ championship parade. Bring back Mark Madsen and let him do a little reign dance in front of Staples Center. Give Jack Nicholson a chest bump. And find one of Hef’s Playmates and give her a smooch. As the late great Chick Hearn would say, “This one is in the refrigerator. The door’s closed, the lights are out, the eggs are cooling, the butter’s getting hard and the Jell-O’s jiggling.” The Lakers are back in the NBA Finals and four victories away from a 15th NBA championship. It’s banner time!

When the Lakers are locked in on defense and playing with a high efficiency on offense, no team in the league – and that includes Cleveland and Orlando – that can stop them. The Denver Nuggets saw the Lakers at their best in Game 6 when the Lake Show dispatched the Nuggets, 119-92, on Denver’s home floor.

The domination was evident from the start. Trevor Ariza got the party started by hitting three 3-pointers in the first quarter. After the Nuggets took a 31-30 lead thanks to J.R. Smith, the Lakers went back to work and the game became one-sided. When the Lakers kicked it into sixth gear, there was nothing the Nuggets could do. Kobe Bryant punctuated the first-half assault by swishing a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Lakers a 13-point lead right before halftime. Dagger!

“All through the series, I saw little cracks in the Lakers. Somehow we’ve cemented those cracks back up and I think they’re the best team right now in the NBA,” said Denver coach George Karl, who reluctantly congratulated the Lakers after they eliminated the Nuggets from the postseason.

As usual, Bryant led all scorers with 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the line. The Black Mamba, who also had six rebounds and 10 assists, showed Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith how to close out a series.

“Their offensive execution was the best it’s been all series, and their box defense kinda frustrated our offense,” Karl added. “Then No. 24 had a great five minutes at the end of the (half) that no one in basketball could have covered. He made about four shots during that stretch; I think Jesus would have had trouble covering him.”

Though Karl was mesmerized by Bryant’s holy game, Kobe was not alone in cutting up the Nuggets. Pau Gasol also flirted with a triple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, and his proficiency in the post allows the other Lakers to get involved and creates a better balance on offense and defense.

“The last two games we really proved to ourselves and everybody else that we can be an extremely high quality team that deserves to be in the NBA Finals and is going for the NBA championship,” Gasol explained. “We have to do more of that. I think we have been a little inconsistent throughout the year with that. When we move the ball and use all of our weapons, we become really dangerous because the defense then hesitates and doubt if they double team Kobe or not, or go double team me or not and they’re out of balance. Hopefully we can keep it this way.”

Lamar Odom came off the bench to score 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and Luke Walton enjoyed his best game of the series with 10 points. When Odom is actively involved in the game, teams have a really hard time matching up with the Lakers because it gives them three highly-skilled scoring options. A perfect triangle offense built to overcome any defense. “Whoever woke up Lamar Odom should be fired,” Karl joked. “I thought we had him contained, but he has been sensational the last two games.”

Karl hinted that when Bryant has is going offensively, Gasol is working his post-up game and the 3-point snipers are hitting their mark, the Lakers become unstoppable.

“We never got control of their post-ups,” Karl said as the Lakers made 43 of 75 of their shots from the field (57%) and were 9-of-16 from 3-point range (56%). “When we doubled it, they scored – the three or the two. And when we didn’t double it, they scored on the post-up. Offensively, they got into control of us more than we got in control of them.”

Right now, the Lakers are in complete control of their destiny and it would not matter who plays them in the NBA Finals because there is no stopping the Lake Show.

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Lamar Odom is posting All-Star numbers since Andrew Bynum went down with a knee injury.(GETTY IMAGES)

Lamar Odom’s game is as volatile as the New York Stock Market. Sometimes it is way up, and sometimes it is way down.

When the Los Angeles Lakers season tipped off, the Odom Meter was running low as all eyes were on Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. The casual fan and longtime basketball experts were curious to know whether the two 7-footers can co-exist when paired in the post in Phil Jackson’s triangle offense. That meant Odom was relegated to the bench, a move he openly accepted but with some reluctance. Trade rumors started flying around Staples Center.

Because of Odom’s massive contract, most in the organization and the basketball community anticipated that the Lakers were not about to keep a double-digit salary player, with reduced minutes, stay on the roster the whole season. That may have been the prevailing thought until….

Down goes Bynum!

Almost a year to day when Bynum suffered a dislocated knee cap against Memphis, the Lakers center sprained his MCL against (who else? the Grizzlies) when Kobe Bryant slammed into his right knee while driving to the basket.

But one man’s misfortune became another’s good fortune.

With Bynum out, Odom was back in. The versatile 6-10 forward was inserted back into the starting lineup and, not coincidentally, the increased playing time injected some much needed energy boost into his game. The Lakers are 10-1 with Odom playing with the first unit, and two of those victories came against Eastern Conference powers Boston and Cleveland on the road.

Odom is averaging 17 points and nearly 14 rebounds per game since the promotion. In a four-game stretch that began in Cleveland, Odom hit double figures in points and rebounds: 28 and 17 against the Cavs, 12 and 18 against Oklahoma City, 19 and 19 against Utah, and 15 and 20 against Atlanta. He followed that up with a 12-and-17 outing against New Orleans and a 25-and-14 performance against Minnesota.

The Odom Meter is definitely way up.

The Lakers may not be willing to admit it, but they are much better on offense with Odom and Gasol working together in the frontcourt. Odom’s versatility allows Gasol to just play in the block and not worry about having to share the post with another big man. It is the same formula that powered the Lakers all the way to the NBA Finals last season. Although Bynum’s absence allows opposing teams to penetrate the Lakers defense with a little more ease, L.A. has been able to stem its deficiencies on defense with an offense that has been incredibly explosive and efficient thanks to a rejuvinated Odom.

The odyssey of Lamar Odom brings us to this point, a point where the Lakers are now counting on the same player who they nearly cast aside for some cap relief. Odom is now in a position where he holds the key to his L.A. lifeline. He is hoping for a new contract, whether it will be in L.A. or not.

Even if Bynum does not completely heal in time for the playoffs, the Lakers should feel secure as long as Odom is playing at an all-time high (oops, no pun intended). He says the 39-point debacle at Boston in Game 6 last year still haunts him, and would love nothing more than another oppotunity to play the Celtics in The Finals. Well, if Odom keeps this up (and that’s a big “if”), the Lakers should be big favorites to bring home the chip and stock up for another Larry O’Brien trophy at Staples Center.

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