Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Renowned for his defensive and rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history". Nicknamed "the Worm",[2] he played for the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Rodman played at the small forward position in his early years before becoming a power forward.
For his son and current basketball player, see DJ Rodman.Personal information
May 13, 1961
Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
228 lb (103 kg)[1]
- North Central Texas (1983)
- Southeastern Oklahoma State (1983–1986)
1986: 2nd round, 27th overall pick
1986–2006
10, 91, 73, 70
6,683 (7.3 ppg)
11,954 (13.1 rpg)
1,600 (1.8 apg)
He earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships. On April 1, 2011, the Pistons retired Rodman's No. 10 jersey,[3] and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later that year.[4] In October 2021, Rodman was honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all-time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.[5]
Rodman experienced an unhappy childhood and was often described as shy and introverted in his early years. After aborting a suicide attempt in 1993, he reinvented himself as a "bad boy" and became notorious for numerous controversial antics. He repeatedly dyed his hair in artificial colors, had many piercings and tattoos, and regularly disrupted games by clashing with opposing players and officials. He famously wore a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography Bad as I Wanna Be. Rodman pursued a high-profile affair with singer Madonna and was briefly married to actress Carmen Electra. Rodman also attracted international attention for his visits to North Korea and his subsequent befriending of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2013.
In addition to being a former professional basketball player, Rodman has appeared in professional wrestling. He was a member of the nWo and fought alongside Hulk Hogan in the main event of two Bash at the Beach pay-per-views. In professional wrestling, Rodman was the first-ever winner of the Celebrity Championship Wrestling tournament. He had his own TV show, The Rodman World Tour, and had lead roles in the action films Double Team (1997) and Simon Sez (1999). Both films were critically panned, with the former earning Rodman a triple Razzie Award. He appeared in several reality TV series and was the winner of the $222,000 main prize of the 2004 edition of Celebrity Mole.
Early life
Rodman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Shirley and Philander Rodman, Jr., an Air Force enlisted member, who later fought in the Vietnam War. When he was young, his father left his family, eventually settling in the Philippines.[6] Rodman has many brothers and sisters: according to his father, he has either 26 or 28 siblings on his father's side. However, Rodman has stated that he is the oldest of a total of 47 children.[6][7][8]
After his father left, Shirley took many odd jobs to support the family, up to four at the same time.[9] In his 1996 biography Bad As I Wanna Be, he expresses his feelings for his father: "I haven't seen my father in more than 30 years, so what's there to miss ... I just look at it like this: Some man brought me into this world. That doesn't mean I have a father".[6] He would not meet his father again until 2012.[10]
Rodman and his two sisters, Debra and Kim,[11] grew up in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas,[12] at the time one of the most impoverished areas of the city.[13] Rodman's mother gave him the nickname "The Worm" for how he wiggles while playing pinball.[14] Rodman was so attached to his mother that he refused to move when she sent him to a nursery when he was four years old. According to Rodman, his mother was more interested in his two sisters, who were both considered more talented than he was in basketball and made him a laughingstock whenever he tagged along with them. He felt generally "overwhelmed" by the all-female household.[15] Debra and Kim would go on to become All-Americans at Louisiana Tech and Stephen F. Austin, respectively. Debra won two national titles with the Lady Techsters.[11]
While attending South Oak Cliff High School, Rodman was a gym class student of future Texas A&M basketball coach Gary Blair.[16] Blair coached Rodman's sisters Debra and Kim, winning three state championships.[17] However, Rodman was not considered an athletic standout. According to Rodman, he was "unable to hit a layup" and was listed in the high school basketball teams but was either benched or cut from the squads. Measuring only 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) as a freshman in high school,[9] he also failed to make the football teams and was "totally devastated".[15]
College career
After finishing high school, Rodman worked as an overnight janitor at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. He then experienced a sudden growth spurt from 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) to 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) and decided to try basketball again,[18] despite becoming even more withdrawn because he felt odd in his own body.[15]
A family friend tipped off the head coach of Cooke County College (now North Central Texas College) in Gainesville, Texas. In his single semester there, he averaged 17.6 points and 13.3 rebounds, before flunking out due to poor academic performance.[9] After his short stint in Gainesville, he transferred to Southeastern Oklahoma State University, an NAIA school. There, Rodman was a three-time NAIA All-American and led the NAIA in rebounding twice (1985, 1986). In three seasons there (1983–1986), he averaged 25.7 points and 15.7 rebounds,[19] and registered a .637 field goal percentage.[18] In 1986 he led his team to the NAIA semifinals where he scored 46 points in a single game, while grabbing a tournament-tying record 32 rebounds, as they finished the season with the highest ranking in school history, at No. 3 in the nation. This helped get him invited to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a pre-draft camp for NBA hopefuls, where he won Most Valuable Player honors and caught the attention of the Detroit Pistons.[9]
During college, Rodman worked at a summer youth basketball camp, where he befriended camper Byrne Rich who was 13 years old at the time, who was shy and withdrawn due to a hunting accident in which he mistakenly shot and killed his best friend. The two became almost inseparable. Rich invited Rodman to his rural Oklahoma home; at first, Rodman was not well-received by the Riches due to the fact he was 22 years old and black, but the Riches were so grateful to him for bringing their son out of his shell that they were able to set aside their prejudices.[20] Although Rodman had severe family and personal issues himself, he "adopted" the Riches as his own in 1982 and went from the city life to "driving a tractor and messing with cows".[20] Though Rodman credited the Riches as his "surrogate family" that helped him through college, as of 2013 he had stopped communicating with the Rich family after Byrne’s mother allegedly referred to Rodman as a “nigger.” [21]
Legacy in basketball
From the beginning of his career, Rodman was known for his defensive hustle, which was later accompanied by his rebounding prowess. In Detroit, he was mainly played as a small forward, and his usual assignment was to neutralize the opponent's best player; Rodman was so versatile that he could guard centers, forwards, or guards equally well[18] and won two NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards. From 1991 on, he established himself as one of the best rebounders of all time, averaging at least 15 rebounds per game in six of the next seven years.[19] Playing power forward as member of the Spurs and the Bulls, he had a historical outburst in the 1996 NBA Finals: he twice snared 11 offensive rebounds, equalling an all-time NBA record. In addition, he had a career-high 34-rebound game on March 4, 1992.[60] Rodman's rebounding prowess with Detroit and San Antonio was also aided by his decreased attention to defensive positioning and helping teammates on defense.[61][62][63] Daly said Rodman was selfish about rebounding, but deemed him a hard worker and coachable.[62] Rodman's defensive intensity returned while with Chicago.[63]
On offense, Rodman's output was mediocre. He averaged 11.6 points per game in his second season, but his average steadily dropped: in the three championship seasons with the Bulls, he averaged five points per game and connected on less than half of his field goal attempts.[19] His free throw shooting (lifetime average: .584) was considered a big liability: on December 29, 1997, Bubba Wells of the Dallas Mavericks committed six intentional fouls against him in only three minutes, setting the record for the fastest foul out in NBA history. The intention was to force him to attempt free throws, which in theory would mean frequent misses and easy ball possession without giving up too many points. However, this plan backfired, as Rodman hit 9 of the 12 attempts.[64] This was Dallas coach Don Nelson's early version of what would later develop into the famous "Hack-a-Shaq" method that would be implemented against Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard, and other poor free throw shooters.
In 14 NBA seasons, Rodman played in 911 games, scored 6,683 points, and grabbed 11,954 rebounds, translating to 7.3 points and 13.1 rebounds per game in only 31.7 minutes played per game.[19][27] NBA.com lauds Rodman as "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history and one of the most recognized athletes in the world" but adds "enigmatic and individualistic, Rodman has caught the public eye for his ever-changing hair color, tattoos and, unorthodox lifestyle".[18] On the hardwood, he was recognized as one of the most successful defensive players ever, winning the NBA championship five times in six NBA Finals appearances (1989, 1990, 1996–1998; only loss 1988), being crowned NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice (1990–1991) and making seven NBA All-Defensive First Teams (1989–1993, 1995–1996) and NBA All-Defensive Second Teams (1994). He additionally made two All-NBA Third Teams (1992, 1995), two NBA All-Star Teams (1990, 1992) and won seven straight rebounding crowns (1992–1998) and finally led the league once in field goal percentage (1989).[19]
Rodman was recognized as the prototype bizarre player, stunning basketball fans with his artificial hair colors, numerous tattoos and body piercings, multiple verbal and physical assaults on officials, frequent ejections, and his tumultuous private life.[18] He was ranked No. 48 on the 2009 revision of SLAM Magazine's Top 50 Players of All-Time.[65] In 2021, to commemorate the NBA's 75th Anniversary The Athletic ranked their top 75 players of all time, and named Rodman as the 62nd greatest player in NBA history.[66] Metta World Peace played one year with the 91 jersey number in homage to Rodman, who he described as a player who he liked "on the court as a hustler, not when he kicked the cameraman."[67]
Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman
May 13, 1961
Trenton, New Jersey
Annie Bakes (divorced)
3
Shirley Rodman (mother)
Philander Rodman Jr. (father)
Impostor Sting
Dennis Rodman
6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
220 lb (100 kg)
March 10, 1997[68]
2000 (first retirement)
2008 (second retirement)
