If tragedy reveals the mettle of a person's character, Lamar Odom has had the chance of a lifetime to prove he's a changed man. The kinder, gentler version of the Los Angeles Lakers star that's come out since his marriage to Khloe Kardashian was in evidence at the scene of a fatal car accident this week in New York. The one-time bad boy of basketball survived the accident unscathed, but he's taken the death of a 15-year-old boy in the incident hard.
Odom wasn't at fault -- he was simply a passenger in the chauffeur-driven car that police say hit a motorcyclist, who lost control of his bike, which crashed into the 15-year-old pedestrian. Surgeons were unable to save the boy from his extensive head injuries, and he has already been buried by his grieving family.
Already in town for a family funeral, confident that he didn't cause the incident, Odom could have brushed it off and used his star power to hide away from the press and ignore the incident. He could have claimed he's already in mourning and has enough to deal with. He's a member of the cocky LA Lakers team, after all.
But he hasn't. He's had the good grace to show his humanity, first crying at the scene and later taking to Twitter (what? he's a Kardashian after all) to express his sympathy for the child's family. His one Tweet on the incident is simple and heartfelt -- and the fact that he hasn't gone on and on, making it about him, shows a lot about the new and improved Odom:
My thoughts and prayers are with the young boys family...
Sounds like Lamar has done some growing up since his "tell the mother of my kids I'm married via text message" days. My heart goes out to the family of this boy for their unspeakable pain. But I confess I feel bad for Lamar too -- sitting in that car, knowing you couldn't do anything to stop the tragedy, that kind of thing will stay with him. He's hurting too.
Do you feel badly for him this week?
Image via BridgetDS/Flickr