Odom has spent the past week at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and is in significantly better shape than when he was rushed to a Las Vegas medical facility following a three-day binge at a Nevada brothel left him unresponsive. The Nye County Sheriff in Nevada said Odom is suspected of using cocaine and sexual-performance enhancement pills.
However, Odom has a grueling path to recovery ahead of him, Harrick told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone conversation on Monday morning.
“Obviously there is a lot of attention about all this but the thing to remember is that there is a long road ahead to rehabilitation,” said Harrick, Odom’s coach at the University of Rhode Island for the 1998-99 season. “This is serious stuff. It could be six months or more for rehab and all that. We don’t know what state his kidneys and lungs are going to be in.”
Odom was the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2011, a two-time world champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and an Olympic bronze medalist with Team USA at Athens in 2004.
The 35-year-old was due to divorce his wife, reality television star Khloe Kardashian, before a lawyer for the pair withdrew the divorce paperwork at a Los Angeles court last week.
Friends grew concerned about Odom’s behavior in recent months, before the dramatic events of Oct. 13, when employees at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nev., made a 911 call when Odom was found in a state of distress by two prostitutes.
He was initially moved to Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, close to the Las Vegas Strip, before being transported to Los Angeles a week ago to continue his care.
“The big thing is that we don’t feel he is going to die,” Harrick said. “That was the hard part, not knowing about that. All the guys he knows, all the guys he played with, everyone has just been hanging on pins and needles waiting to see what is going to happen.
“I love him and care about him. You can see from the reaction how people feel about him. I just want him to get right and have a long and happy life.”
