The Insider: Odom continues to improve

Lamar Odom’s condition continues to improve after the former NBA star was found unconscious at a Nevada brothel a week ago.
Odom, 35, has started physical therapy at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas and will soon try to walk, sources told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Jim Harrick, Odom’s former college coach at Rhode Island, talked to CNN on Monday about Odom’s progress.
“We’re more hopeful now,” Harrick said. “We’ve been on pins and needles for days.”
Odom has been hospitalized since last Tuesday after he was found unconscious at a brothel named Love Ranch in Crystal, Nev., located about 80 miles outside of Las Vegas. He was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support, and was reportedly close to death.
Odom has been breathing on his own since Friday and no longer has a breathing tube, ESPN reported. He also has been conversing with family and friends.
“Lamar has always been blessed with a tenacious, fighting spirit, overcoming insurmountable obstacles to achieve the impossible,” JaNean Mercer, Odom’s maternal aunt and godmother, said in a statement Monday. “These past few days have been no different. ... (He is) defying the odds in his toughest battle to date.”
According to the Daily News, Odom has experienced frequent fatigue and has received constant treatment on his lungs and kidneys.
In the 911 call released last week, Love Ranch employees said Odom was unresponsive with a light red fluid and white matter oozing out of his nose after using cocaine and taking sexual performance supplements.
Harrick said he’s been in touch every day with Odom’s estranged wife, reality-TV star Khloe Kardashian, who has been at his bedside.
Odom played 14 NBA seasons and finished his career in 2013. He won championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 200
Ridgewater’s Olsen All-Around Player of the Week
Ridgewater volleyball player Brenna Olsen was named the MCAC-South All-Around Player of the Week on Monday.
Olsen had 30 digs and 10 kills in a 3-2 win over No. 8 St. Cloud Tech. Olsen had a .296 attack percentage as Ridgewater moved into sole possession of second place in the South.
Thissen earns NSIC Player of the Week
Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball player Abbey Thissen has been named Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Offensive Player of the Week for her performance this past weekend.
Thissen, a native of Clara City, helped lead SMSU to two NSIC victories over Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State this past weekend. The senior right-side hitter recorded 23 kills over the weekend while hitting .629 and recording just one attack error on 35 attempts. Thissen set a career-high hitting percentage in the win versus Bemidji State as she hit .750. Thissen leads the Mustangs with 257 kills so far this season and ranks sixth in the NSIC in kills.
Pistorius freed on parole after year behind bars
Oscar Pistorius, South Africa’s “Blade Runner”, will be released on parole on Tuesday, a day short of a year into his five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
But the disgraced Paralympic gold medalist must serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest, and still has to face an appeal by prosecutors who argue that he should have been convicted of murder rather than culpable homicide.
Pistorius, 28, who was found guilty of the lesser charge when he fired four shots through a locked bathroom door and hit Steenkamp, will be confined to his uncle Arnold’s home in a wealthy suburb of the capital Pretoria.
The athlete, whose lower legs were amputated when he was a baby, will be freed in line with South African sentencing guidelines that say non-dangerous prisoners should spend only one-sixth of a custodial sentence behind bars.
- Tribune Sports/Sports Xchange/Reuters