"Various incidents trigger Lakers forward Lamar Odom to reflect on losing his mother at age 12 to colon cancer.

It happens whenever Odom takes out a pair of white, purple and gold Nikes before every game and writes out Cathy, referring to his mother, Cathy Mercer. Memories spark whenever he accomplishes something, such as when he approached the lectern last spring to accept the NBA's sixth man of the year award. Odom's gratitude toward having a life insurance policy when Mercer passed away served as inspiration to becoming a spokesman this summer for Life Insurance Awareness Month, appearing in a recent PSA on behalf of the nonprofit Life Foundation."