I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1975 to Jim and Jo Odom. I lived there for only a short time before moving to Jackson, New Jersey. I enjoyed my time there as a youngster making my first close friends, breaking my leg, playing in the snow. My next move would become home, Kingwood, Texas. I moved here in 1979 and quickly met many lifelong friends while attending Foster Elementary, Kingwood Middle School and finally Kingwood High School. I excelled at many sports growing up, but I found my passion in basketball. As a gangly freshman, I quickly grew and by my sophomore year, I was a force to be reckoned with. Along with my teammates, we were able to achieve great success at Kingwood High School. I went on to become the all time leading scorer at Kingwood and a McDonald's All - American.

After high school, I chose to accept a scholarship to UCLA. I loved the west coast and the lifestyle, but was not real happy with my future at UCLA, so I chose to move in a different direction and team up with Sam Cassell at San Jacinto Junior College. We had a great run to the National Junior College Championship. We were ranked in the top 10 in the nation and were on our way to the championship until I broke my thumb and eventually lost in the playoffs. Since my eligibility was up at San Jac, it was time to move on again, this time to the east coast, and to University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I once again enjoyed success at Charlotte, I was the 49ers starting center in each of my three seasons, averaging 11.0 points and 7.9 rebounds in my first season at Charlotte, helping the 49ers to the Metro Conference Tournament Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament with a 23-9 record. I averaged 11.9 points and 8.7 rebounds as a junior in 1993 as the 49ers went 15-13. In my final season with the 49ers, I was able to average 7.6 points and 7.0 rebounds as our team went 16-13 and reached the NIT. I wrapped up my career as the eighth all-time rebounder for the 49ers with a 7.9 career average, ninth all-time in double-doubles with 16 and tied with Cedric Maxwell for 4th all-time in blocked shots with 94 career blocked shots.

After college I began a professional basketball career that spanned 9 years with stops in Poland, Finland, Hungary, Columbia, Argentina, Belgium, and Qatar. In between playing abroad, I began to coach my nephew Trevor in baseball and basketball. Along with his dad, my brother Rusty, we spent countless hours throwing the baseball, with me playing first and Trevor fielding grounders at shortstop for hours on end. We also coached basketball together and really enjoyed working with the kids.

After my last stint in Europe, I decided to call it a career and move on to a more stable life back in Houston. After meeting the love of my life, Melinda Holum, we were married and started a wonderful life together downtown. In addition to marriage and starting a career in sales, I decided to form my own basketball organization, Project Hoops. I enjoyed the planning that went into organizing the team with my brother and my good friend Dean Hunt. My brother and I spent countless hours designing the Project Hoops logo, the uniforms, ad planning teams. The organization quickly grew to several teams with kids from 10 to 17 years old playing under the Project Hoops umbrella. The Project Hoops organization is a group of kids primarily from Kingwood that stresses fundamentals and family.

Seeing that my future was in Kingwood, Melinda and I moved to Kingwood in August of 2008. The house was a dream house for me, everything was extra large to accommodate my XL frame. The best part of the house was the garage/Ice House. Fully equipped with a 50" plasma TV, ping-pong table, dart board, frig, couch and a huge deck spanning out from the rear garage door. Friends and family enjoyed times spent out there watching the ritualistic Alabama football games. It quickly became the spot to be....