Spanish club Baskonia inks Odom to short-term deal

VITORIA, Spain — Former NBA star Lamar Odom has agreed to a short-term deal with Spanish basketball club Baskonia.

The former Los Angeles Lakers forward has a two-month contract, the club said on Tuesday.

Odom, an NBA free agent who hasn't played since finishing out last season with the Los Angeles Clippers, is filling a roster spot that opened up because of injury. Baskonia said the deal includes an option to extend the contract until the close of the season.

Odom, 34 and a two-time NBA champion with the Lakers who has also played for the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat, was expected in the Basque capital of Vitoria this week, and could make his debut on Saturday against Valladolid.

"We're very happy to have signed a very important player who has had a long and fruitful career in the NBA," Baskonia president Josean Querejeta said in a statement.

"We've worked very hard over the last couple of days to make this happen, we felt we needed a boost and had to break the collective cloud that has been hanging over us over the last while so we could get back to winning."

Baskonia was ninth in the 18-team Spanish league and last in its Euroleague group, with a match against fellow Spanish club Barcelona on Thursday.

The 2.09-meter (6-foot-10) power forward averaged a career-low 4.0 points and 5.9 rebounds last season with the Clippers.

Off-court distractions seemed to consume him after last season as he was arrested for drunken driving last summer before getting divorced from wife Khloe Kardashian, who he starred with in a reality television show, in December.

Odom trades Los Angeles and Hollywood for Vitoria, a medieval city which is the equivalent size of Birmingham, Alabama.