Lamar Odom is interviewed in the February issue of Playboy – the full interview excerpt is here. I’m cutting out a lot of the sports stuff, just because I personally don’t care. Lamar talks about sports, of course, and fame and race, but my favorite parts are when he talks about his wife. I know a lot of you are haters of Khloe and Lamar, but I’ve grown to love them together. And I like the way Lamar talks about her too:

“I was kind of surprised at how intelligent she was. You don’t know what to expect. Next thing I know I’m spending every day with her. We just hit it off,” says Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom of the first time he met his wife, Khloé Kardashian, in Playboy’s February Interview. “I never in my life thought I would get married. There was a time when I liked being a certain way, being social and having friends in different places, but when I met Khloé, that was the first time I got the urge to be like, I don’t even want to do that anymore. That’s when I knew I found somebody. I couldn’t do what I normally do. She’s too strong-willed. She’d leave me.”

Despite a tough childhood growing up in Queens, NY, and fighting through early scandals in his basketball career, Odom has achieved stardom both on and off the court. After marrying Khloé just one month after meeting her, Odom was thrust onto magazine covers and talk shows typically reserved for basketball’s biggest stars. As a further testament to his dual-fame, the couple has started filming their own E! Reality-show, Khloé and Lamar. Playboy sent Contributing Editor Jason Buhrmester to meet Odom at Playboy Studio West, where he discovered why the athlete’s sweet tooth is legendary. “During the interview he put away a large bag of peach jelly rings and a couple of chocolate bars,” says Buhrmester.

On how marrying Khloé has changed him: “Men, most of the time our goal is to have what we want when it comes to women…Most men like more than one woman. A lot of them would not want to admit that because that might not be cool, right? Most people don’t want to get married. Being married, that’s a responsibility. I always used to tell that to women. I don’t want a girlfriend because that means I’ve got a responsibility. I have a responsibility to call you. I have a responsibility not to be with another woman. I have a responsibility to be there on time when you need me. With her I was like, If I do what I normally do, I’m going to lose her. And if I lose her, I think it’s going to hurt a lot. Right then and there I knew. We were together every day.”

On whether it was true that he withheld sex until they were married: “I tried to. I didn’t know why I wanted to wait. We came together and knew what we wanted from each other really early, and everything we did felt good, from a hug to a kiss. Then there was a time when I just tried to be a gentleman about the whole situation. I was accepted by her family. She stayed at my place and vice versa. I thought, We’re going to step back for a second. Keep it classy.”

On accusations their love is fake, and their marriage is a “PR stunt”: “That’s just how gossip works, you know? You can’t stop it. Because at the time, with us being so successful—me in basketball and her show doing so well—it was too big. It was too huge. It caught people off guard. It looked as though we had too much to gain. That let me know, damn, it’s a big deal. Even the wedding was big. The list of her family friends was crazy. Those were her people showing up, showing their love. For some people that was too much to even think about. And it was quick. I guess that just added to the speculation—‘Why can’t they wait?’I didn’t want to wait.”

On what would happen if a sex tape of Odom and Khloé leaked: “When people see us in person, they see Khloé’s not small. I’m not small. People see us and are probably like, Damn, I wonder how that looks. We wouldn’t have anything to be ashamed about, but no, that’s not going down.”

On adjusting to the dynamics of the Kardashian family: “People have the wrong idea. They’re a really strong family and fun to be around…I’m perfect for that. I come from a big family. I’ve always been on a team. I understand. The circus is what makes it tick and keeps it going.”

On Khloé’s stepfather Bruce Jenner’s feelings towards him: “Bruce likes me because I’m normal. First, because he’s in a house full of women. He could tell my energy is just about trying to do the best for his stepdaughter and do what I need to do. Respect goes a long way when you carry yourself a certain way and show manners when you first meet someone. If you do that, then it’s hard for somebody not to like you.”

On whether he wants to tell Kourtney Kardashian’s boyfriend Scott Disick to shut up: “Nah, that relationship is between them. As a man, you know how that goes. That relationship is between her and Scott. As long as he’s not disrespectful to Khloé, I can’t overstep my boundaries.”

On how his life changed when his mother died of colon cancer when he was 12: “I probably got closed off. My concentration level changed. School was just something I would not concentrate on. I wouldn’t allow myself to. I became detached. I got in touch with a cold side I probably wouldn’t have gotten in touch with or maybe would’ve at a later age. I have that kamikaze button in me now where I can cut things off maybe a little too easily.”

On meeting President Obama when the Lakers visited the White House: “That was cool. He can ball. And he plays lefty, so he has a unique way of thinking and doing things. He asked me, ‘How’s married life treating you?’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ He’s hip. He knows what’s going on. It was amazing. My grandmother was born in 1923 in Georgia in the segregated South, so the significance of this was pretty big to me.”

[From Playboy]

When Lamar talks about sports, that’s when he starts cussing up a blue streak, but he keeps it clean (klean) when he talks about Khloe. That’s interesting to me for some reason. And for the record, I don’t think their marriage is a PR sham either – but I’m also not saying that I believe 100% that Lamar isn’t screwing around. I don’t really buy his “one woman” talk, but we’ll see. I just have an inherent distrust of athletes at this point.

Photos courtesy of WENN.