Tag: Dennis Rodman

The 6 best Dennis Rodman moments from ‘The Last Dance’

Counting down all the amazing moments, from his 48-hour Las Vegas vacation to his bizarre “apology” to Michael Jordan.

Episodes three and four of “The Last Dance” aired on Sunday night, and somehow even catapulted above the greatness of the first two episodes. The ESPN/Netflix documentary looks at the 1998 season of the Chicago Bulls, the last time the team won a title with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson … and Dennis Rodman.

A big reason for these episodes’ greatness was that they largely focused on Rodman, a figure who’s as misunderstood and interesting as any athlete of the last few decades.

We’ll do a full breakdown of the two episodes later this morning, but for now, let’s count down the best six moments featuring Rodman in the episode, from his on-court work to his infamous trip to Las Vegas with Carmen Electra.

1. Rodman explaining the rebounding prep work he did

Dennis Rodman was, statistically, the greatest rebounder the game has ever seen. (Read this wonderful, extensive blog post breaking down just how special he was.) As he reveals in the documentary, that wasn’t just from some preternatural understanding of where the ball was going to go.

Rodman reveals that he used to go in an empty gym and has his friends chuck up shots from all over the court, over and over, so he could study how the ball would bounce. He’d have them shoot with different arcs and spins, and revealed that he’d study certain players’ releases to know how the ball would come off the rim of their shots. If one thing became even more clear these episodes: Good heavens he did the work.

2. Getting a $20 bill from Craig Sager for an upcoming fine

There’s a delightful moment when a younger Craig Sager is walking past Rodman in the underbelly of an arena, and Sager hands Rodman a $20 bill to help him pay some upcoming, undisclosed fine. Rodman laughs, then posits it’s Sager bribing him for an upcoming interview.

3. The Barbara Walters interview

Watching Rodman’s interview with Barbara Walters interview back is such an interesting little window into the time period. Walters is such a tough interviewer that she doesn’t let Rodman off the hook, but watching back, it’s sort of bizarre what she won’t let him off the hook for. He … dyes his hair? He … has piercings? Who cares?

There’s a longer essay here about why Rodman was so threatening to people back then, and what it says about popular athletes, especially popular black athletes, that any deviation from a preset idea results in a national hysteria.

4. His “apology” to Michael Jordan

After getting ejected from a game, Dennis Rodman “apologized” to Michael Jordan by going to his room and asking if he had an extra cigar. No “sorry” or anything. Just asking for a cigar.

That’s great, but what’s even better is that MJ inherently understood that was Rodman’s way of apologizing, and forgave him. Honestly, it made me like Jordan more.

5. The Vegas vacation

Rodman asked for a vacation to clear his head and was given 48 hours to go to Las Vegas and blow off steam. (It’s incredible how much respect Phil Jackson gave his stars, by the way. Not only in allowing Rodman to go, but by getting Jordan’s permission (!) first.)

I’d heard that story before. What I hadn’t heard (or forgot) was that the Bulls actually sent Jordan to go collect Rodman in Las Vegas. Can you imagine if that happened today? NBA Twitter would have to retire.

6. His dismissal of Nashville

This was a throwaway line, and Nashville has changed a lot, and I love the city, so please don’t get mad at me for including it. But when a fan told Dennis he needed to come visit Nashville, his answer “I’ve been to Nashville. Uh uh. No.” is an all-timer.

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Breaking down the games Dennis Rodman missed during Vegas vacation

Dennis Rodman grabbed the headlines in Sunday’s episode three of “The Last Dance” with one of the most bizarre stories in NBA history.

ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary had already captured the collective attention of the sports world even before Sunday night’s episode three focused on Dennis Rodman. Always a fascinating figure, Rodman captivated audiences for the full 60 minutes, but it was the final segment that really left a mark on viewers.

In a story untold before Sunday, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan shared on Rodman’s impromptu vacation to Las Vegas. An enigmatic character, Rodman had battled through a grueling opening half of the season as the second option to Jordan with Pippen on the sideline injured. But upon Pippen’s return, Rodman summoned Jordan and Jackson for an unorthodox request of an in-season vacation.

Rodman eventually negotiated down to a 48-hour trip to Vegas that lasted twice as long before Jordan himself pulled Rodman out of his hotel room bed and escorted him back to the team. Everything about the story was bizarre, including the fact that Rodman missed multiple games during his week-long hiatus.

Pippen returned against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 10 and the Bulls’ big three played for five games together through Jan. 18 against Houston. Rodman then embarked on his trip to Vegas with the Bulls not scheduled to play again until Jan. 21, leading to the logic behind the 48-hour window suggested by Jackson.

But Rodman did not arrive for that contest, a home game against the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets, who would later relocate to New Orleans before rebranding as the Pelicans and returning the franchise’s nickname and history back to Charlotte in the mid-2000s, were a respectable 23-16 on the year before meeting the Bulls.

Jordan showcased his typical dominance with 33 points while Pippen had 14 points as the Bulls obliterated the Hornets, 110-79. Charlotte’s leading scorer, Glen Rice, was held well below his 22.3 points per game average on the night as he shot just 4-of-18 from the field for 10 points.

Two nights later, the Bulls travel to New Jersey where they came away with a two-point overtime win behind 32 points from Jordan and 19 points, nine assists and seven rebounds from Pippen. With Rodman absent, New Jersey’s Jayson Williams finished with 23 points and 23 rebounds.

Chicago then flew back home while Jordan made his trip to Vegas to locate Pippen and bring him back to the team. In his first game back from the multi-day escapade in Utah, Rodman played 34:14 and grabbed 14 rebounds without scoring in a 101-94 loss to Utah.

Rodman did not miss another game the rest of the regular season or playoffs. In the final 40 games of the regular season, Rodman averaged 36.2 minutes per game before playing 34.4 minutes per game in the playoffs.

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Dennis Rodman recounts how Larry Bird schooled him in ’87 playoffs

In the 1987 East Conference Finals, a young Dennis Rodman dared defend Larry Bird hard as the Celtics and Pistons faced off; this is what happened.

With ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” stirring up memories of the 1986 Boston Celtics and their series with the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1986 Eastern Conference Playoffs, it’s worth a look back at a similar tale of that era while we wait for a return to NBA basketball.

Former Detroit Piston Dennis Rodman appeared on the “Basketball Time Machine Podcast” last month, and spoke a bit about the series Detroit had with Boston in the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.

The two teams took the meeting to seven games that saw Rodman and Celtics guard Dennis Johnson jaw at each other constantly, and the Worm — as Rodman was called — go as far as to suggest Larry Bird was overrated because of his race.

Asked if he and the Pistons really hated Boston, Rodman instead made a surprising admission all these years later.

“I was just so green behind the ears, man, ” he started.

“I didn’t know I just want to go out there and play, but I saw [Isiah] Thomas, Joe Dumars, Rick Mahorn and … all those guys who were there before me, they hated them so much.”

He continued.

“I didn’t know the rivalry was like that until I got to participate in the first game in 1986-87, and I tried to do my best to go on Larry Bird – it didn’t work too well, he kind of schooled me a little bit. The whole game — every game — he plays it [by saying], ‘Dennis, are you guarding me?'”

Bird really dug the knife in good, even going up to the Pistons head coach at one point to ask him to send someone in who could defend him better.

Rodman would later earn Larry’s respect on the court, but the Hick from French Lick made the then-Detroit forward pay for daring to guard him so hard in his prime.

Larry was known for his trash talk, and despite the public acrimony at the time, the pair never really had any visible enmity off the court because of it.

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Rodman actually apologized for his comments about Bird soon after, which Bird related he understood in an interview with the Undefeated’s Marc Spears.

“I’ve been in them locker rooms after tough losses. There is no telling what’s said off the record, heat of the battle,” began the Indiana State product.

“Stuff like that never bothered me. Everybody is going to have their opinion, they’re going to say what they’re going to say, you just go on about your business. I can remember after that game somebody come up to me right away after they talked to Isiah.”

“But really, it wasn’t a big deal.”

After the furor died down and passions cooled, anyway.

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Kerr: Behind the scenes, Dennis Rodman was quiet, shy on Bulls

While Dennis Rodman was outlandish in public with his appearance and North Korea trips, Steve Kerr said that in private, he was “pretty unassuming.”

You know Dennis Rodman as the star with the dyed hair. The guy with all the piercings. The one who visited North Korea and became a friend of Kim Jong-un.

Behind the scenes, though, Rodman was quiet and rather shy as a member of the Chicago Bulls, former guard and current Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told Scott Van Pelt on Sunday after the release of the first two episodes of “The Last Dance.”

Next weekend, Rodman will be featured in the documentary. Van Pelt asked Kerr what the public will be surprised to learn.

“I think just how shy and quiet Dennis was,” Kerr said. “The real Dennis.”

As Kerr was talking, SVP showed pictures of Rodman, including dressing in drag with a wedding dress.

“Behind the scenes he liked listening to Pearl Jam, he liked hanging out with his teammates, he liked lifting weights and he rarely said a word in practice,” Kerr recalled.

“But when he got in front of the crowd, like you see in some of these images, he became a different person.”

Rodman was with the Bulls during their second three-peat.

He led the league in rebounding each of those three years as part of his seven-year run as the best rebounder in the game in which he averaged 16.7 boards per game.

“Genuinely, he was just a good dude,” Kerr said. “Guys really liked to hang out with him and he was pretty unassuming, actually.”

Discussing ‘The Last Dance’: MJ’s legacy, Pippen’s deal, Krause’s ego and more

Alex Kennedy and Jarrod Rudolph discuss “The Last Dance” – from Michael Jordan’s legacy to Scottie Pippen’s deal to Jerry Krause’s mistakes.

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Alex Kennedy is joined by Jarrod Rudolph, who is the Director of Public Relations and Social Strategy for the NBA agency YouFirst. They discuss the premiere of “The Last Dance,” Michael Jordan’s greatness, Scottie Pippen’s frustration over his contract, Jerry Krause’s mistakes, what they hope to see in the remaining episodes and more. Time-stamps are below!

1:05: After years of hearing rumors about this Michael Jordan documentary, Alex and Jarrod talk about how exciting it is to finally watch it.

2:50: Props to Adam Silver (who was the head of NBA Entertainment) and Andy Thompson (a producer and Klay Thompson’s uncle) for embedding a camera crew with the 1997-98 Bulls and making this possible.

6:35: Rather than just focusing on the 1997-98 season, “The Last Dance” does a great job of providing context and telling Jordan’s complete story.

9:00: Alex and Jarrod discuss the look at Jordan’s family and upbringing (which explains a lot about his competitiveness).

14:25: Jerry Krause seems like the villain of this series, pushing Phil Jackson out of Chicago and breaking up the team. Alex and Jarrod discuss what Krause was thinking and how his ego caused him to make big mistakes.

21:00: Krause wanted to break up the team prior to the 1997-98 season, which sort of seems like self-sabotage.

25:45: Scottie Pippen has a tremendous story, going from equipment manager at a Division II school to Hall of Famer. Alex and Jarrod talk about his contract and his frustration over being underpaid after signing a seven-year, $18 million deal in 1991.

33:40: In 1997-98, Jordan made $5 million more than all of his teammates combined. Did Pippen resent Jordan for their large pay gap?

43:25: Alex and Jarrod discuss what they want to see in the remaining eight episodes of this series.

45:45: Jordan told director Jason Hehir that people will think he’s a “horrible person” after watching the documentary. But is there really anything that this series could show that would hurt Jordan’s image, considering what we already know about him?

Dennis Rodman’s Las Vegas trip story revealed in ‘Last Dance’ episode 3 clip

It looks so good.

The Last Dance — the Michael Jordan and 1997-98 Chicago Bulls documentary — is already living up to the hype after its first two episodes premiered on Sunday.

And there are eight more installments to go.

Thanks to Good Morning America, we got a peek at the third episode, in which the story of a Dennis Rodman trip to Las Vegas is fully revealed.

Apparently, when Scottie Pippen returned from his surgery in 1998, Rodman asked for a Vegas vacation to blow off some steam. Head coach Phil Jackson asked if Rodman could make it just 48 hours, and Jordan was concerned about the whole idea:

If you’re wondering about the end of that story? Here’s what I’ll do for you: if you want to know about it and don’t mind having Sunday’s episode No. 3 spoiled for you, I’ll make it a SPOILER ALERT for those of you who do. The rest of the tale is below this photo of Rodman.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Ready? Here’s more on it from Yahoo Sports:

“He did not come back on time,” Jordan said. “We had to go get his ass out of bed, and I’m not going to say what’s in his bed, where he was, blah, blah, blah.”

“There’s a knock on the door and it’s Michael Jordan,” Rodman’s ex-wife, Carmen Electra, said. “I hid. I didn’t want him to see me like that so I’m hiding behind the couch with covers on me.”

“Dennis came back and joined the team and that’s the way it went that year,” Phil Jackson said.

Yowza. What a story.

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How Bulls doc ‘The Last Dance’ could portray Michael Jordan

Mackenzie Salmon caught up with BJ Armstrong to discuss the upcoming 10-part series which highlights the Bulls’ run to the 1998 NBA title.

Mackenzie Salmon caught up with BJ Armstrong, a former teammate of Michael Jordan, to discuss the upcoming 10-part series which highlights the Bulls 1997-98 run to an NBA championship.

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LeBron is hyped like the rest of us on ‘The Last Dance’ MJ doc coming out soon

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is as hyped as the rest of us on the Michal Jordan documentary from ESPN getting moved up.

ESPN blessed us with some phenomenal news late on Monday night after weeks of clamoring from desperate sports fans looking for some new content to sink their teeth into that isn’t in the form of an Instagram Live. Everyone, from folks on NBA Twitter to LeBron James himself, has been hoping for ESPN to move up the release date of “The Last Dance,” from June, with ESPN listening to the fans and giving us our wish.

ESPN themselves gave LeBron some love by showing a clip from his appearance on Road Trippin’ last week, where he suggested that this hiatus when everyone is at home would be the perfect time for the Worldwide Leader to release the 10-part documentary that features years of behind the scenes footage of Michael Jordan’s final years with the Chicago Bulls. LeBron himself can’t wait.

The first two episodes will be shown April 19 on ESPN, with two new episodes becoming available every Sunday for the next four weeks, with the final episodes premiering on May 17. Episodes will be available after they air on the ESPN app to watch on-demand. For fans looking to watch the documentary outside of the United States, the first two episodes will be available April 20 at 12:01 a.m. pacific time, on Netflix, with a similar weekly release schedule, according to the NBA.

Back around Christmas, ESPN released an extended trailer to show fans what the documentary will be like.

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Watch: Dennis Rodman challenges Rob Gronkowski to wrestling match

The charismatic Dennis Rodman has challenged Rob Gronkowski to a wrestling match.

This would be a clash of two of the biggest and boldest personalities in sports.

If Dennis Rodman has his way, he would get a shot to wrestle Rob Gronkowski in a WWE ring.

The former Chicago Bulls star and NBA legend is 58 years old and showing no fear of the former New England Patriots tight end, who is 30. They were actually born a day apart with Rodman’s birthday on May 13 and Gronk’s May 14. Twenty-eight years apart, though.

“Someone asked me, ‘Dennis you want to wrestle again?’ I could tell you a guy I really want to wrestle and that’s Gronkowski. I mean that guy from New England. He talks a lot of bleep. I’m fifty years old, you’re 32, 33 years old, great. It don’t matter to me, let’s go ahead and do this bleep. This ain’t about me making any money, I’ll just go out and wrestle his ass. Let’s go on and do it.”

Rodman has been in a wrestling ring. He famously was in WCW before its demise. The video below shows Rodman tagging with Hulk Hogan in a match against Karl Malone and Diamond Dallas Page.

And here’s Rodman making an entrance as a member of the legendary nWo.