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MT: I can appreciate that, because while you’ve joked about playing QB in the NFL or pitching for the Dodgers, boxing might be the toughest sport there is...
Odom: It’s combative on a whole different level. You know what I mean? I don’t think people realize the shape boxers have to be in. It’s an incredible workout from your ankles to your neck. I love it. I was also hoping it might wake my right hand up … if I can throw a strong right hand, it might help me make a right-handed layup.

MT: It’s now been over two months since you won your first championship. What comes to mind first as you reflect on it?
Odom: Just the whole process. It’s incredible how the mind works, because we put that mindset in place in the beginning of the year, that we were going to win the championship. That was in the air. We used to bring it in and say, “1, 2, 3 Ring!” before games, and that’s what we made happen. It wasn’t a surprise for us, even though it was a surreal feeling, and I just want to be able to taste it again. Once you get there, you can’t imagine doing anything else.

MT: With you. Hey let’s talk about when you first met Ron Artest in Queens.
Odom: Our friendship started at age 12 when we started playing for the same basketball program, Brooklyn-Queens Express. That brought us together and we’ve been friends ever since. We’re from two different parts of Queens – which is the biggest borough of New York City. I’m from Jamaica Queens, and he’s from Long Island City, a historic housing project called Queens Bridge. It’s a big basketball community and a small one at the same time, so it was a really special opportunity for me to play with Elton (Brand, also from New York, for the Clippers) and (Ron signing in L.A.) is one of the reasons why I stayed put.

Dexmor wrote:Is this the first news of him working out in the summer? I think it is which is great. I have never heard of him working on his game in the offseason. It's to bad because imagine how good he would be if he gained just 10 pounds of muscle and worked obsessively on the 3. He would be incredible. Or maybe if he worked on his already good ball handling skills with Magic and he had a very good 3 pointer maybe just maybe Phil Jackson would give us what we are all dying for which is a lineup of Odom-Kobe-Ron-Gasol-Bynum just for a quarter here and there.