He had a good relationship with his teammates and coach Daly, and by all reports he was infuriated when some of his friends got traded and Daly left the team.
It was a family to him, and when it disintegrated around him, it was tough for him to deal with. There he helped the Spurs to advance to the playoffs by leading the league in rebounding in , , and he had been top rebounder with the Pistons in as well.
It was also in San Antonio that Rodman began coloring his hair the many shades that have made him a star beyond the bounds of basketball. The painful process took up to three hours and carried the threat of future baldness. Rodman suggested that if his hair falls out, he would just tattoo his head.
With the Spurs, Rodman established himself as a rebounding specialist on a par with the likes of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain—both of whom were centers, far taller and heavier than Rodman. In fact, at six-foot-eight and pounds, Rodman is definitely short and slight for his specialty. He can often anticipate how a ball will behave when it fails to fall through the basket—and he responds accordingly.
A lot of work is done before you ever even jump. It was during his tenure with the Spurs that Rodman met singer-actress Madonna on a photo shoot. They began a highly-publicized courtship that added spice to the tabloids for months. While Rodman refused to comment on the relationship, his Spurs teammate Jack Haley—one of his few close friends—said that Madonna was very serious about Rodman. I was there. She was dead serious. That was the last season he played in the NBA, retiring in at 38 years of age.
Rodman had a lot of extracurricular activities on the side as well during his time in the league. He had a brief career as a professional wrestler, joining Hulk Hogan in the WCW between and Rodman has also released two autobiographies, which he continues earning royalties from years after they were released. He denied that was the case. Still, the sense that Rodman was unstable was something he seemed to embrace as part of his on-court persona. He regularly dyed his hair and relished showcasing his off-court romances with celebrities like Madonna and Carmen Electra.
Rodman's life proved no less turbulent after he retired from basketball. In April , he was arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly hitting his wife at the time, at a hotel. Rodman pleaded no contest and a judge ordered him to complete 45 days of community service. In addition to his NBA career, Rodman briefly took a stab at professional wrestling, participating in a few matches in the late s. He also had his own series, The Rodman World Tour, around this time.
Rodman went on to become a reality television regular. He returned to Donald Trump 's business competition The Apprentice in , after appearing on an earlier season. Known for his wild lifestyle, Rodman attempted to clean up his act on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House in The always unpredictable Rodman also tried his hand at diplomacy in February He traveled to North Korea for two days and met with the country's leader, Kim Jong-un.
The two share a love of basketball, and Rodman watched a game with Kim during his visit. Rodman told Stephanopoulos that Kim was "awesome" and "so honest," despite his less-than-stellar record on human rights. The former pro basketball player also expressed in an interest in returning to North Korea to help facilitate peace between the United States and North Korea.
But I think the only major demon I have right now is trying to convince myself that I am a good dad. That's the worst one for me. And it's so hard for me for some reason. It's very hard for me to break out of that cycle, you know. You feel like it's too late. It's one of those things where I never had anyone ever want [to love me]. His two younger children have no recollection of his mercurial career, which began when Rodman landed with that veteran Pistons team coached by the venerable Chuck Daly, who identified Rodman's vulnerability and immaturity and served as his protector and surrogate father.
Soon, Rodman became a regular at the Daly Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, dutifully adhering to house rules: Shoes off when you come in the door so as not to soil the pristine white carpet.
It was, 'How you doing? What's going on? You need anything? It was very comfortable for me to be there. When I was alone in my apartment and there was nobody there to be with me, I'd always call Chuck Daly or Isiah Thomas. Thomas, the Pistons' perennial All-Star point guard, fielded calls at all hours from the jittery rookie, whose social anxiety was palpable.
Yet, when Rodman was on the court, he proved to be an indefatigable competitor, a voracious rebounder and a relentless defender. This is not a joke. We want to win a championship. You've got to get your act together, get your ass together and get your head focused.
You can't keep going out with [Pistons big man] John Salley. You gotta do your job. Back in those days, I was pretty much lost, but I was lost in happiness.
The Pistons won back-to-back championships in and , but their moniker was the Bad Boys, a conflicting concept for a young player who was thirsting for acceptance -- and affection. In , while standing in the bowels of the Orlando Magic 's arena on All-Star Saturday, the announcer listed the game's participants for Sunday.
When he bellowed Dennis Rodman's name, the crowd booed lustily. Rodman, his eyes pooling, turned to a reporter and asked, "Why do they hate me? Change in the NBA is inevitable.
Eventually, Salley was traded, Daly resigned and Rodman fell into a funk, his emotions running amok both on and off the floor. He was embroiled in a painful divorce with his first wife, Annie Bakes, Alexis' mother. His lowest moment came in February , when police discovered him asleep in his truck in the Pistons' Auburn Hills parking lot with a loaded gun in his lap.
As Salley chillingly notes in the 30 for 30 film, "Did I believe he was going to shoot himself at the Palace of Auburn Hills? And yet, Rodman still managed to win seven consecutive rebounding titles from to , dying his hair the color of the rainbow, piercing his nose and his lips, enjoying a short-lived relationship with Madonna and a short-lived marriage to Carmen Electra. The Worm was omnipresent, both in the party scene and on the NBA circuit.
His stunts made him instantly recognizable, a bona fide NBA character who wore a wedding dress in to promote a book.
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