The 43-year-old former Lakers forward, who won two NBA championships with the team in 2009 and 2010, was speaking on his podcast The LADE Show about the torrid start the franchise has made to the season, slipping to 3-10 and second bottom of the Western Conference.

With LeBron heading towards his 38th birthday, Odom said that this was the time for the team to be able to get at least three new players on the back of him shipping out.

When asked whether the Lakers should trade LeBron, in order for the franchise to rebuild, Odom was all for it.

He said: “If you trade LeBron then you know you’re doing more than rebuilding. I mean, if you did…”

Podcast co-host Aron Cohen interrupted: “I can’t believe we are talking about this.”

Odom hit back: “Well, you brought it up. If you did, you’re probably going to put yourself right back into contention.

“You can get half a team, you’re going to get half a team.”

The host admitted that if LeBron was traded that there would be a lot of opportunities, saying: “You’re going to get a historic haul of picks and players.”

Odom explained his reasoning, saying: “You’re picking two or three players that been playing together already. It is God James, and I do call him God James but God knows that the world evolves and to keep the involvement of my purple and gold, it’s almost bigger than God James.”

Reaction to the thought of LeBron being traded from the Lakers was mixed but there were a few people who believe that now is the time to possibly cut him loose and use the money to build a new team.

One Twitter user commented: “With lebron playing like he’s 80 years old they should just rebuild and trade away AD [Anthony Davis] and lebron this trade alone makes them what ? Play ins ? You guys need your draft picks way more.”

Others think that it would be crazy to move the Lakers’ star player on, especially after such a wretched start to the season.

One pointed out that without LeBron, there would be no other star signings: “You do realize if you trade Lebron you will never get another star FA to sign with you right?”

While another added: “I want to know what people are smoking to think Lakers will win more without LeBron. When people say trade him, it’s because they’re tired of the Lakers FO wasting his years. Only dumba**** consider him the biggest issue to the team’s misfortunes.”

The debate continued, with one commenting: “Lakers would still be horrible after that trade Lebron is really a liability out there they can never win with him on the court Father Time as finally beat him.”

Former pros are also split in opinion about LeBron, with four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal, 50, saying it would be a huge mistake to trade him.

Speaking to CNBC, he said bluntly: “If you trade LeBron, you’ll never win again.”

Meanwhile, former Chicago Bulls star Jay Williams has said that the Phoenix Suns would be a good landing place for LeBron if he was traded out of L.A.

Speaking to Arizona Sports, Williams, 41, said: “I talk to a lot of people around the league. Is there a way to get LeBron James to the Suns to play with Devin Booker, CP3 [Chris Paul] and [Deandre] Ayton? There’s a lot of draft picks that the Suns have, there’s familiarity with James [Jones, Suns general manager] and LeBron.

“I get this inclination that I’m not sure the Lakers are going to want to be all-in. I don’t think they’re going to be able to turn things around and there might be a rebuild in process.

“And in the process of that, who better a trade partner than the Phoenix Suns, who feel like they’re always right there but just seem to not be able to get over the hump.”

He added: “It would take a swath of picks. I think you would have to talk about a few future things that might need to occur in relation to little Bronny [LeBron’s son].

“But I look at the relationship he’s had with management - their days back in Cleveland with James - and I also look at the relationship he’s had with CP3 and the durability of always wanting to play together. There are some challenges injury-wise potentially at this stage, but I just don’t think anything is out of the realm anymore.

“I look at this Lakers team and I think that they’re going to be on the outside looking in, and [general manager] Rob Pelinka and [owner] Jeanie Buss are really going to be at this stage where they’re going to have to think about whether they want to jeopardize their only two picks to be all-in for the next year and jeopardize the future of this franchise. Will LeBron want to be there long-term after next year? I’m not really sure that’s the case of him ending his career in L.A.”

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