Lamar Odom has revealed that Kobe Bryant had promised to help him with his gambling problems just weeks before the former NBA star died.
Khloe Kardashian's ex told NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their All The Smoke podcast that he had accumulated huge debts through gambling and called his former teammate for help.
He described in detail how his debts had spiralled and how Kobe had scolded him for his habits.
Lamar, 41, said: "I had been gambling. It got a little too steep for where I was at at that time.
"It was getting tight. And if you in a bad situation, especially about some money, [Kobe] ain't the one that you gonna wanna call."
But he confessed that he "built up the strength" to contact Kobe and put his pride to one side.
Despite Kobe criticising his habits, Lamar said that the star offered to help him.
He said: "He was just, 'Have your people call my people, and then we’ll figure it out'."
He revealed that it was the second last time he spoke to Kobe before the star was involved in a fatal helicopter crash.
The accident in California in January last year killed Kobe, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people.
Lamar went on to describe his relationship with her former teammate as Kobe "being a teacher and me being his brother".
He told of how Kobe taught him many lessons in life both on and off the court.
He joked that away from the basketball court, Kobe "taught me to sign my own checks".
He continued: "I know I been through my own stuff in life with using drugs and not being good to myself.
"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."
Following Lamar's hospitalisation in 2015, Kobe left a preseason Lakers game early to visit him in hospital.
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