On
Jan. 17, 1997, ESPN reports bad boy Dennis Rodman was suspended
indefinitely by the NBA season due to the first lockout that actually went on
during the NBA season.
Rodman
kicked a courtside cameraman and was fined $25,000 for the incident. Rodman was
reinstated and went on to become one of the top rebounders in the league.
Rodman started his career in Detroit with the Pistons, after
being drafted 27th overall in the second round of the 1986 NBA
Draft. On the Pistons, Rodman was part of the “Bad Boys” for their hard-nosed
approach to basketball.
The squad featured Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars at the guard
positions, Adrian Dantley
and Sidney
Green at forward, and center Bill Laimbeer.
Rodman would play with the Pistons from 1986-1993 and would
earn two NBA Championships with the Detroit franchise. He would earn two NBA
Defensive Player of the Year awards, two All-Star nominations, one All-NBA
Third Team nomination in 1992, five NBA All-Defensive First Team nominations
and two NBA Rebounding Champion awards.
The Detroit Pistons would retire his no. 10 jersey in 2011.
After his first five years with the Pistons, Rodman would
move to the San Antonio Spurs for three years from 1993-1995. With the Spurs,
Rodman would continue his dominance as a defensive presence, winning another
All-Defensive First Team award in 1995, as well All-Defensive Second Team award
in 1994, while earning the NBA Rebounding Champion every year in San Antonio.
He would also earn another All-NBA Third Team award in 1995.
After his short stint with the Spurs, Rodman would make his
best career move, joining the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan on his first
return from retirement. During his four years with the Bulls, Rodman would win
four more NBA Rebounding Champion awards, one more All-Defensive First Team
award, and most importantly three more NBA-Championships from 1996-1998.
After the 1998 season Rodman would leave the Bulls for the
Los Angeles Lakers. He would only play one year with the Lakers, during the lockout-shortened
season he would only see action in 23 games before being released.
In the 2000 season Rodman would join the Dallas Mavericks.
For the Mavericks, he played 12 games, was ejected twice and alienated the
franchise with his erratic behavior until he was waived again; then Dallas
guard and teammate Steve Nash
commented that Rodman "never wanted to be [a Maverick]" and therefore
was unmotivated.
After leaving the NBA in 2000, Rodman went on a hiatus from
basketball for three years until picking up with Long Beach Jam of the
newly-formed American
Basketball Association during the 2003–2004 season, with hopes of being
called up to the NBA midseason.
In the following 2004–2005 season, he signed with the ABA's Orange County Crush
and the following season with the league's Tijuana Dragons.
After retiring from wrestling, Rodman became Commissioner of
the Lingerie
Football League in 2005.
In 2005, Rodman also made two visits to Finland. At first, he was
present at Sonkajärvi
in July in a wife-carrying
contest. However, he resigned from the contest due to health problems. In
November, he played one match for Torpan Pojat of the
Finland's basketball league, Korisliiga.
That same year, Rodman published his second autobiography I Should Be Dead By Now and promoted
this by sitting in a coffin.
The return to the NBA never materialized, but on Jan. 26,
2006, it was announced that Rodman had signed a one-game "experiment"
deal for the UK
basketball team Brighton
Bears of the British
Basketball League to play Guildford Heat on
January 28, and went on to play three games for the Bears.
In spring 2006, he played two exhibition games in the
Philippines along with NBA ex-stars Darryl Dawkins, Kevin Willis, Calvin Murphy, Otis Birdsong and Alex English. On April 27,
they defeated a team of former Philippine
Basketball Association stars in Mandaue City, Cebu and Rodman scored
five points and grabbed 18 rebounds.
On May 1, 2006, Rodman's team played their second game and
lost to the Philippine
National Basketball team 110–102 at the Araneta Coliseum,
where he scored three points and recorded 16 rebounds.
Apart
from basketball, Rodman is a retired part-time professional wrestler
and actor. He was a member of the NWO
and fought alongside Hulk
Hogan at two Bash at the Beach events. He had his
own TV show The Rodman World Tour, and had lead
roles in the action films Simon Sez and Double Team alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Both films were critically panned, with the latter 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. Rodman won the first
ever Celebrity
Championship Wrestling tournament.
On
April 4, 2011, it was announced that Rodman would be inducted into the Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
This year Rodman got into some hot water with the media for his comments made during his trip to North Korea.
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