What Lamar Odom Can Learn from Me

I just took my first Beijing bus today! One more step towards becoming a true Beijing-ren.

So I went to Zhongguancun yesterday (which is like the electronics haven of Beijing) to look for a laptop cooler. After searching a bit, I finally find the perfect one. It's a Cooler Master brand that's made entirely of aluminum and has a large 200 mm fan. Perfect. I begin to bargain with the store owner, and after a few rounds, it becomes apparent that he won't go below 100 kuai--which he claimed was "doing me a favor". Yeah right, I thought. Seeing that this wasn't going anywhere, I pull the classic bargaining move of "walking out", which consists of the following steps:

1) Scoff at the storekeeper
2) Tell him/her that the price is outrageous
3) Let out a big laugh for dramatic effect
4) Walk away...but walk away slowly in anticipation of the storekeeper running after you

To my surprise, however, the storekeeper didn't chase after me! I shrugged this off and walked away confident that I would be able to find this elsewhere for a cheaper price. So I spend an hour looking around, and to my amazement, no other storekeeper would lower his price under 120 kuai! The first storekeeper was in fact giving me the lowest price!

I was then faced with a huge dilemma. Should I crawl back on my hands and knees to that first storekeeper, admit I was wrong, and ask for his original price? Doing so, however, would not only be humiliating, but it would also concede defeat. My other option would be to let pride get the better of me and just shovel out an extra 20 kuai to buy it elsewhere.

After thinking this over for awhile, I finally decided to suck it up and go back to the first storekeeper. I came back with a sheepish grin and admitted that he was right. The guy was nice and gave it to me for his original price.

So what do I think is the moral of this story? If I could put aside my pride and be a man about things, then Lamar Odom should damn well be able to do the same. That's right, LO, learn from your buddy Jason, and put aside your pride and your ego (and that of your agent's), admit you were wrong, go back to Jerry Buss and ask...nay, beg for his original offer. And Jerry, put aside your huge ego and give it to him, the dude totally deserves it and us fans want a repeat. Got it? Good.

Unfortunately, this latest news does not bode well... =/