'Dancing With the Stars': Khloe Kardashian's Ex Lamar Odom Stirs Social Media After Joining Season 28

Lamar Odom is suiting up for an entirely new kind of athletic feat: Dancing With the Stars. The [...]

By Libby Birk

Lamar Odom is suiting up for an entirely new kind of athletic feat: Dancing With the Stars. The former NBA player was among the 12 celebrities announced for season 28 Wednesday on Good Morning America, along with stars like Ray Lewis, Queer Eye's Karamo Brown and The Bachelorette Hannah Brown. When DWTS host Tom Bergeron asked if Odom would be game for all the sparkly costumes that come with the territory of being on the reality dance competition, Odom seemed less than enthused.

"Most of our guests have sparkles on at some point. You ready for that?"

"No, I don't know if I can do sparkles," Odom said, laughing. "I'm used to looking good, but I don't know if I can do sparkles."

Most DWTS fans were pleased to see Odom's name on the season 28 roster, especially in the midst of his press tour for his new memoir and recent revelation that he is battling addiction issues, including giving up porn "for the better."

Others wondered if Odom's marriage with ex Khloe Kardashian would be brought up during the season's arc, as he addressed it in his memoirs and in recent interviews.

The full cast of DWTS includes Odom, Karamo Brown, Hannah Brown, Lewis, country music singer Lauren Alaina, actor James Van Der Beek, actor Kate Flannery, former Fifth Harmony member Ally Brooke, actor Kel Mitchell, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, model Christie Brinkley and The Supremes music legend Mary Wilson.

Fans will have to wait to find out which professional dancers the celebrities are paired up with; in a new twist, the match-ups won't be revealed until the season finale, Bergeron announced Wednesday.

"I will still be with [co-host Erin Andrews], but other than that, we're not telling you," Bergeron joked during the GMA event.

While fans don't know the specific pairings, ABC did confirm the returning pro dancers: Peta Murgatroyd, Cheryl Burke, Gleb Savchenko, Val Chmerkovskiy, Jenna Johnson, Lindsay Arnold, Sasha Farber, Alan Bersten, Witney Carson, Emma Slater and Brandon Armstrong. Additionally, two new dancers will be joining: Daniella Karagach and Pasha Pashkov. Notably missing from the line-up was Artem Chigvintsev, who is currently dating his former DWTS partner, Nikki Bella, as well as reigning champion Sharna Burgess, who won season 27 with Bobby Bones in a highly-contested win.

Burgess hinted toward a possible exit earlier this month with a lengthy note about how much the show has meant to her over the past nine years.

"What an incredible almost 12months of new adventures, new challenges, being outside my comfort zone and realizing the things I am capable of," she wrote in part. "It has been thrilling, terrifying, satisfying, soul feeding and dream making. ... When I reflect I can't help but be grateful for [DWTS] and for the the opportunity it gives me to grow, learn, and create for all of you guys to make you smile, cry and laugh. To work with someone and get to show them how to share their story through dance like I've known my whole life. It's beautiful, it's a gift and I treasure it. I treasure the life DWTS has given me. A life I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams."

Dancing With the Stars season 28 premieres on Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: Dave Kotinsky / Stringer / Getty

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