Kobe Bryant's Death Prompts Lengthy Heartbreaking Message From Former Lakers Teammate Lamar Odom

Kobe Bryant's tragic death has shocked the sports industry and the world as a whole. Thousands of celebrities have sent out tweets and posts on social media about the tragedy, sharing photos and videos and how Bryant impacted their life. Perhaps one of the more personal of those was Lamar Odom, a former teammate of Bryant's with the Los Angeles Lakers. Odom dealt with a slew of issues off the court and talked about how important Bryant was during his career in helping him along the way.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lamar Odom (@lamarodom) on Jan 26, 2020 at 2:57pm PST

"He taught me so many things in life that were necessary on and off the court. On the court he taught me how to carve out defenses and how to take my time. How to make winning my ultimate goal," he began, before joking that Bryant also helped him learn how to checks.

"Of course anyone who knows my story knows I've suffered a lot of loss but the only loss I can compare this to is when I lost my son. Even though our relationship wasn't father/son, it was more like him being a teacher and me being his brother. I'm glad I got to be the ying to your yang as far as the locker room was concerned. It was my pleasure."

Odom continued his lengthy heartfelt message by saying he couldn't catch his breath as he didn't believe the news. He then went into reflecting on moments they shared together at practice. He then touched on his past scare when he was in a coma back in 2015 following an accidental drug overdose.

"When I went through that Coma situation if God would have came to me and said we would take me and spare Kobe I would have rather that happened," he wrote.

One user commented in response to that remark: "God spared your life for a reason! You were still needed here on earth and don't take it for granted ever again. Life is a gift and a situation like this one should teach you that!"

Odom finished his post by saying that in honor of his friend, he'll wake up at 4 a.m. "to get to the gym."

The former Dancing With The Stars competitor played 14 seasons in the NBA with five teams. His longest tenure was with the Lakers from 2004 to 2011, all of which were with Bryant as his teammate.

Photo credit: Getty Images