A new Netflix documentary about former Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom is drawing attention not just for the story it tells but for how openly that story gets told. The director behind the project says both Odom and his ex-wife Khloé Kardashian surprised him with the level of candor they brought to the screen.
Untold: The Death and Life of Lamar Odom, now streaming on Netflix, revisits one of the most harrowing chapters in recent sports history. A decade ago, Odom was found unresponsive at a brothel near Las Vegas following a drug overdose. The documentary gives him the space to revisit that moment and everything surrounding it in his own words, at his own pace.
How the director drew out the truth
The director behind the project explained that the format of the documentary was specifically designed to get past the polished, media-trained exterior that many high-profile athletes carry with them into interviews. The idea was that extended, unhurried conversations would eventually cut through the carefully constructed public persona and reveal something more genuine underneath.
That approach paid off. According to the director, by the time the interviews reached their later hours, subjects tend to let their guard down in ways that shorter formats simply do not allow. Odom was no exception, and what emerged was something more personal and vulnerable than most sports documentaries manage to capture.
Khloé Kardashian’s presence adds another layer
The documentary’s reach extends beyond Odom’s own account. Kardashian’s willingness to participate added a dimension that the director described as genuinely surprising. Their relationship, which played out very publicly during their marriage and its turbulent aftermath, is revisited here with a level of openness that goes beyond what either has shared in other formats.
Together, their accounts create a fuller picture of a relationship tested by addiction, public scrutiny and near tragedy. It is a portrait that resists easy conclusions and instead sits with the complexity of two people navigating an extraordinary set of circumstances.
A story about addiction as much as basketball
What sets Untold: The Death and Life of Lamar Odom apart from a conventional sports documentary is its willingness to center addiction as the main event rather than a footnote. Odom’s basketball career, which included two NBA championships with the Lakers and a Sixth Man of the Year award, provides the backdrop. But the film’s real focus is on the battle he fought away from the court.
The director has spoken about hoping the documentary fosters genuine empathy, not only for Odom specifically but for anyone who has faced the grip of addiction. That intention comes through clearly in the finished film, which treats its subject with care while refusing to sanitize the darker realities of what he endured.
Why this documentary lands differently
There is no shortage of athlete documentaries on streaming platforms right now, but Untold: The Death and Life of Lamar Odom earns its place among the more affecting entries in the genre. It benefits from a subject who has lived through something genuinely extraordinary and who is, at last, willing to talk about it without filters.
For viewers who followed Odom’s story through headlines alone, the documentary offers something those headlines never could. It is a fuller, messier and ultimately more human account of a life that nearly ended and what it took to keep going.
