Eccentric, abrasive basketball player, born in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. He started his professional career with the Detroit Pistons, winning two championships (198990) with them before joining the Chicago Bulls, winning consecutive championships in 19968. He led the NBA in rebounding for seven consecutive seasons (19928). He signed for the LA Lakers in 1998, but was waived by the club after less than three months. He is the author of Bad As I Wanna Be (1996) and Walk On the Wild Side (1997).
Dennis Rodman| Position | Power forward |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Worm |
| Height | 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) |
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Born |
May 13, 1961 Trenton, New Jersey |
| College | Southeastern Oklahoma State |
| Draft |
27th overall, 1986 Detroit Pistons |
| Pro career | 1986 – 2000 |
| Former teams |
Detroit Pistons (1986-93) San Antonio Spurs (1993-95) Chicago Bulls (1995-98) Los Angeles Lakers (1999) Dallas Mavericks (2000) |
| Awards | NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1990, 1991) |
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961, in Trenton, New Jersey) was a professional basketball player best known for his defensive and rebounding ability, leading the National Basketball Association in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and earning NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times.
When Rodman entered the NBA in 1986, he was officially listed as 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) while playing one of the most physical positions in basketball at power forward.
Career
Pre-NBA and amateur career
Rodman, who grew up in Dallas, Texas, was far from a basketball prospect in high school;
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons took sufficient notice of him to select him in the second round of the 1986 NBA Draft. Rodman's intensity was a perfect fit for a team known for its rough style of play and tenacious defense.
In 1988, Rodman seemed to show even more star potential, crashing the boards more and defending better than before. He finished second to Laimbeer in rebounding on the team, and Rodman helped the Pistons put away the young Chicago Bulls for the second straight year as they won their first NBA championship. The following year was almost identical, with the Pistons beating the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals again, winning their second straight championship, and Rodman again winning Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Rodman led the Pistons with 12.5 rebounds per game in 1991. In 1992, Rodman improved significantly, averaging over eighteen per game as he won the first of seven straight rebounding titles. Rodman's second best rebounding performance was in 1993, in his last season with the Pistons.
San Antonio Spurs
In San Antonio, Rodman continued his rebounding expertise and allowed center David Robinson to focus more on scoring; It marked the first time that teammates won both the scoring and rebounding title, but it would not be the last for Rodman. The following season, Rodman helped San Antonio to their then-franchise best win-loss record of 62-20, and they made it to the Western Conference finals.
Chicago Bulls
Following the 1994-95 season, Rodman was traded to the Chicago Bulls for center Will Perdue in order to fill a large void at power forward left by Horace Grant. The Bulls, with Rodman and Michael Jordan's return from retirement improved 25 games from the previous year's 47-35 record to an NBA record 72-10 regular season finish in the 1995-96 season. Rodman, Jordan, and Scottie Pippen all made the All-Defensive First Team, the first time three players from the same team made it on the first team. Rodman led the league in rebounding for the fifth straight year, and Jordan won the scoring title, the second time that teammates had led the league in scoring and rebounding.
Rodman was known for his shocking behavior on the court, including his head butt of referee Ted Bernhardt during a game in New Jersey on March 16, 1996. Though he was not assessed a technical foul at the time, Rodman ultimately paid Amos a $200,000 settlement, and the league suspended Rodman for 11 games.
Rodman left Chicago after the 1997-98 season as the Bulls started a massive rebuilding phase. Rodman was the premier rebounder of the 1990s with seven straight titles, and matched up defensively with players ranging from Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, to Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley.
Post-Bulls career
After his stint with the Bulls, Rodman became a journeyman, briefly joining the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks, creating more controversy than actually contributing athletically.
Career awards and accomplishments
NBA Champion (1989, 1990, 1996–98) All-NBA Third Team (1992, 1995) NBA All-Star Team (1990, 1992) NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award (1990, 1991) NBA All-Defensive First Team (1989–93, 1995, 1996) NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1994) NBA Top Rebounds-per-game average (1992–98) NBA Top Total Rebounds (1992–94, 1998) NBA Top Offensive Rebounds (1991–94, 1996, 1997) NBA Top Defensive Rebounds (1992, 1994, 1998) NBA Top Field Goal Percentage (1989)Other work
Rodman is known for his controversial behavior and outlandish appearance and being notoriously prone to cursing in public or on live television during his playing career.
Rodman was also briefly married to Carmen Electra, and famously wore a wedding dress at a public appearance to promote his autobiography Bad as I Wanna Be, ISBN 0-440-22266-4.
Professional wrestling
Rodman wrestled a few matches for World Championship Wrestling and was a member of the nWo with Hulk Hogan, a friend of his. There was much controversy because Rodman was red hot due to his Bulls career, and Hogan made sure to make the most of it, sticking close to Rodman during any publicity to insure he would receive some publicity himself.
Acting career
In 1997 Rodman made his feature film debut in the action film Double Team alongside Jean Claude Van Damme.
Rodman World Tour
In 1996, Dennis Rodman had his own MTV reality talk show called The Rodman World Tour, which featured Rodman in a series of odd-ball situations.
Recent actions
Rodman was present at or participated in at least two different contests in Finland in 2005.
Rodman released another autobiography entitled I Should Be Dead By Now, written with Jack Isenhour in 2005.
Rodman was named Commissioner of the Lingerie Football League in 2005.
Rodman has appeared in a number of reality TV series. During one of the tasks in the house where the housemates had to rank themselves and the others in order of fame, Rodman was put second to the British former comedian and comic quiz show host Michael Barrymore. Rodman was the fifth housemate evicted on a double eviction night with George Galloway, Rodman annoyed producers of the show and presenter Davina McCall by refusing to remove his baseball cap and sunglasses at the post eviction interview and by not directly answering questions on his opinions of other housemates .
On January 26, 2006, it was announced that Rodman had signed a one-game "experiment" deal for the UK basketball team Brighton Bears to play Guildford Heat on 28 January.
Rodman was the first man, and the first sports star to pose (naked) for PETA's advertisement campaign "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur".
Rodman, along with NBA legends Darryl Dawkins, Kevin Willis, Calvin Murphy, Otis Birdsong and Alex English are slated to play two exhibition games in the Philippines. Rodman delighted the crowd with his antics, scoring 5 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. However, on May 1, Rodman's team lost to the Philippine national basketball team 110-102 at the Araneta Coliseum.
In Mandaue City, Cebu, locals were shocked at Rodman's snub of them and the media during his group's visit at the Mandaue City Hall where they met with mayor Teddy Ouano .
Most shocking of all was an incident that happened during the visit when Rodman ate budbod (Philippine rice cake) that was served to them. One of Rodman's most acrobatic plays of his basketball career took place in a game in the 1996/97 season in which he dove to save the ball from falling out of bounds. His perfect horizontal dive, three feet above the court, caused WGN announcer Wayne Larivee to joke it was "a 10.0 dive from all but the East German judge" After the incident with the camera man a Chicago radio show on B-96 (Eddie and JoBo) made a popular parody of the song "One of Us" and called it "Dennis Rodman is the Best."
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