NBA

Lamar Odom says death of ‘brother’ Kobe Bryant is worst pain since losing his infant son

Lamar Odom on Tuesday said the loss of former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant “feels like a long-lasting nightmare” — calling it the worst pain since the death of his infant son.

“It seems rather surreal. It feels like a long-lasting nightmare,” the 40-year-old former hoops star told “Good Morning Britain” about Sunday’s helicopter death of his close friend and mentor.

“I’m gonna miss him dearly. His tutelage. His strong will,” Odom said, clearly struggling to find the words as fiancée Sabrina Parr sat beside him.

“I’m just blessed I was able to rub shoulders with that man, and have a little bit of that magical dust sprinkled off on me,” he said.

“I know I’m feeling really bad and his fans are, I can just imagine how his children and wife and his mother and father feel right now.”

Odom and Bryant in 2011
Odom and Bryant in 2011Getty Images

Odom shared just how painful the loss was proving when his interviewer said that listening to him speak was “as if a part of you was ripped away.”

“I haven’t really felt a pain or a shock like this since my son passed away in 2006,” Odom said, referring to 6-month-old son Jayden, whom he lost to sudden infant death syndrome.

Odom had also shared a lengthy tribute on Instagram, calling Bryant, 41, like “a teacher and me being his brother.”

“No way God took my brother this early,” he wrote. “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 said, referring to his 2015 overdose at the Love Ranch brothel in Nevada, in which he suffered 12 strokes and six heart attacks while in a coma.