Then he seemed to drop out altogether before he was found unresponsive in a brothel and taken to hospital, bringing his estranged wife, his former teammates and the world’s attention back to his side on Wednesday.

Hospital authorities would not comment on the condition of the 35-year-old former NBA forward, but the Rev Jesse Jackson was among his visitors. Jackson said Odom was on life support and improving.

“Apparently from what the doctor said, he was much better off today than yesterday. He at least has some responsiveness now,” Jackson said. “He’s got tubes in him now but we felt inspired by his presence.

“We’re just holding hands and hoping he can bounce back.”

Odom, who was embraced by teammates and television fans alike for his Everyman approach to fame, was found face down and alone on Tuesday after spending four days at the Love Ranch, a legal Nevada brothel.

Odom started “throwing up all kinds of stuff” after a 911 operator told them to turn him on his side, Love Ranch owner Dennis Hof said. Odom had “spent time socialising with some of my girls,” but wasn’t seen taking any illegal drugs, Hof said.

Nye County sheriff Sharon Wehrly said at a news conference that a brothel employee who called 911 reported Odom consumed cocaine on Saturday and had taken up to 10 tabs of a sexual performance enhancer over the past three days. She said he was found unresponsive with blood coming from his nose and mouth.

Wehrly earlier said investigators were seeking a blood sample to determine if Odom overdosed on drugs or alcohol.

Odom spent most of his 14-year NBA career in Los Angeles with the Lakers and Clippers, becoming a fan favourite before he sought even more fame with the Kardashian celebrity family.

His one-month courtship of Khloe before their huge 2009 wedding was taped for the E! network, and Odom appeared on nearly two dozen episodes of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” as well as other family spinoffs, including his own “Khloe & Lamar” show in 2011 and 2012.

Khloe Kardashian called him “Lam-Lam” and worried openly about him on the show. Even after they split up in 2013, cameras recorded her calling him and checking on his welfare.

People always seemed to support Odom, whose prematurely weathered face wore the impact of his personal tragedies in a friendly way. And news of his hospitalisation brought an outpouring of dismay and encouragement from his friends and family.

Kobe Bryant joined Kardashian and some of Odom’s childhood friends at his bedside after a Tuesday night Lakers game in Las Vegas.

“Lamar Odom is one of the greatest people I’ve ever known,” said Derek Fisher, the New York Knicks coach and Odom’s longtime teammate with the Lakers. “I don’t view him through the prism of choices that he’s made. I’m obviously hoping that he can pull through this, and that in some fortunate way this becomes the beginning of a different ending.”

Even his estranged father, Joe Odom, was there at the hospital, according to his grandmother, Florence Odom, who said Lamar was “in God’s hands.”

Authorities were called to the brothel in Crystal, Nevada, about 3.15pm on Tuesday. The 6-foot-10 Odom was too tall for an available helicopter, so he was driven by ambulance to Sunrise Hospital & Medical Centre in Las Vegas.

Hof said his staff had picked up Odom from a home in Las Vegas on Saturday, and he seemed “happy, he was sleeping every night.”

“He largely kept to himself, and at no time did he engage in any drug use in the presence of anyone in the house. He did drink alcohol from our bar, and was taking 
some herbal sexual enhancement capsules,” Hof’s statement said.

Odom emerged as one of the most promising basketball talents of his generation after a difficult childhood in Queens, where his mother died of cancer when he was 12 and his estranged father was addicted to heroin.