Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - There was a lot of lip service about competitive balance during the NBA lockout this past offseason. LeBron James fleeing Cleveland for the sun and sand of South Beach and Carmelo Anthony wrangling his way to New York upset more than a few "small-market" owners around the league, so much so that they almost shut down the sport for the year.

So, maybe it should have been no surprise that antennas were raised when the NBA-owned Hornets agreed to send Chris Paul to the mighty Lakers in a three- way blockbuster that would have sent Lamar Odom to the Big Easy and Pau Gasol to Houston.

In the end, however, the league declined to approve the trade for "basketball reasons." after a number of owners reportedly complained and Paul ended up across the hall with the Clippers.

The fallout from the failed deal was immense and Odom, for one, was hurt by the proposal and requested a trade, eventually ending up in Dallas with the reigning world champions for a 2012 first-round draft pick along with an $8.9 million trade exception, a deal that looked like grand larceny at the time.

The reigning Sixth Man of the Year, Odom has always been one of the more gifted players in all of basketball, the type of matchup nightmare that can beat you in a host of ways thanks to a lethal combination of length and skill.

He could take you from the inside or outside on the offensive end and torture you with that length as a defender. Odom was also the rare 6-foot-10 player that could handle the ball and beat you as a playmaker.

"How much talent can God bless one guy with?" Hall of Famer Karl Malone once said about Odom. "Lamar Odom is one of the most talented guys. He can handle the ball, he can shoot the three, great shot-blocker when he wants from the weak side. How much disruption are you going to cause?"

All that said, part of the reason Odom fell out of favor in Hollywood was his reality television show in which he co-stars with wife Khloe Kardashian. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. In the offseason one of Odom's cousins died after being shot and an SUV that he was a passenger in was involved in an accident that killed a teenager on a bicycle.

His commitment to the game was being questioned by the Lakers and it turns out that Mitch Kupchak and Company were spot on. Odom couldn't even make it through one season in North Texas.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Odom and the Mavericks have worked out an agreement that allows the two sides to divorce immediately, with the struggling Odom leaving Big D for the remainder of the season with pay. The Mavs, in turn, will not release him, list him as inactive for the rest of 2011-12 and retain his rights.

"The Mavericks and I have mutually agreed that it's in the best interest of both parties for me to step away from the team," Odom said in a statement to ESPNDallas.com.

"I'm sorry that things didn't work out better for both of us, but I wish the Mavs' organization, my teammates and Dallas fans nothing but continued success in the defense of their championship."

The Mavericks expected Odom to help alleviate Tyson Chandler's departure in free agency but the 13-year veteran's head was never in it and he struggled mightily from the season's opening tip.

He was eventually given a four-game leave of absence to tend to his ill father and sent down to the D-League when he returned, an almost unheard of move for a player with Odom's resume and a sign that Dallas had already given up on him.

With just nine games left in the regular season, the Mavs, who are 31-26 and seventh in the Western Conference, finally pulled the plug and felt the best way to defend their title was to jettison Odom and his mental funk from the locker room.

And it was probably the prudent thing to do. Now Rick Carlisle and his players will no longer have to answer any more questions about the underachieving forward and the organization will not have to defend his often morose body language.

Odom, meanwhile, will return to Southern California, his wife and his reality show -- things he never really wanted to leave.

The Sports Network