LAS VEGAS - A spokeswoman for Lamar Odom's aunt says the NBA star woke up and spoke three days after being found unconscious at a Nevada brothel.

Alvina Alston, publicist for JaNean Mercer, Odom's maternal aunt and godmother, said that Odom spoke a greeting and gave a thumps up Friday morning, his first communication since being hospitalized.

Odom has been unconscious at a Las Vegas hospital since being found Tuesday at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada.

Alston said Mercer is the sister of Odom's late mother who helped raise him in New York, where she still lives. Mercer and other family members, including estranged wife Khloe Kardashian, are in Las Vegas at the hospital.