"He had a po'boy pulled down over his sunglasses" - Phil Jackson recalls Dennis Rodman's bizarre first meeting with Bulls
Dennis Rodman could be unpredictable as a player. With his eccentric personality, technicolor hair and refusal to play by anyone's rules but his own, it was jarring to picture him in a Chicago Bulls uniform — especially in the mid-'90s.
This was a team defined by structure, discipline and the sheer definition of greatness. After missing the NBA Finals two years in a row, the Bulls were desperate to climb back to the top.
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Rodman, of all people, was the answer they turned to.
From Motor City to Chicago
Two years and it was unlike the Bulls not to have made the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan was back for his first full season after his baseball stint, but they needed more. That was when head coach Phil Jackson sought Rodman. From the onset, he knew what he was dealing with.
"I set up a meeting with Dennis and it was at Jerry Krause's home and I went in and Dennis had all these rings in his nose, in his lip, in his ears," Jackson said. "He had a po'boy pulled down over his sunglasses. You couldn't see him."
Rodman didn't exactly waltz into Chicago with a clean slate. His journey to the Bulls was littered with controversy, defiance, and stints with franchises that couldn't quite contain his chaos. With the Detroit Pistons, Dennis played a crucial role in the Bad Boys era, helping the Pistons secure back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990.
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But his personal life began to unravel after the departure of mentor Chuck Daly. A trade to the San Antonio Spurs followed in 1993, where things only got stranger.
Despite leading the league in rebounding and earning All-Defensive Team honors, his clashes with management and increasingly unpredictable behavior, like taking off his shoes mid-game or refusing to suit up, became too much for the Spurs' brass to tolerate.
By 1995, the team was ready to cut ties, but few organizations were willing to take on that kind of volatility. Until Chicago. At the time, the Bulls were trying to piece together a new identity after losing Horace Grant to free agency. The franchise was trying to reconstruct a frontcourt tough enough to contend again.
They didn't just need any big man. They needed rebounding, grit and above all, someone capable of holding down the dirty work so Jordan and Scottie Pippen could operate at full throttle.
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Related: "A game for sissies" - Wilt Chamberlain admitted he only started playing basketball because he was from Philadelphia
Rodman's impact
The Bulls needed someone to crash the boards, especially with Grant — who had averaged 15.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game in his final year with Chicago — gone and the team physically outmuscled in the paint. Rodman, for all his baggage, was still the most ferocious rebounder in the game.
"We looked at the options, all of them were costly, none of them that extreme," Jackson said. "We went with San Antonio and Will Perdue went in exchange for Dennis Rodman. And the big deal was, 'Can you handle Dennis Rodman?'"
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The trade was finalized in October 1995 and it shook the league. The Bulls were sending a serviceable center in Will Perdue to the Spurs in exchange for one of the NBA's most polarizing figures. But Jackson and the Bulls' brain trust believed they had the infrastructure to manage Rodman.
With the stoicism of Pippen, the iron will of Jordan and Jackson's own spiritual-meets-psychological coaching style, there was confidence that the team could absorb the chaos. And Rodman, for all the noise he made off the court, showed up when it mattered.
The wild nights, the Vegas disappearances and the dress-wearing press appearances didn't stop. But neither did his production. "The Worm" led the league in rebounds in all three of his seasons with the Bulls, averaging 14.9, 16.1 and 15.0 rebounds per game, respectively, from 1995 to 1998.
He wasn't brought in to score or be a locker room presence but brought in to do one job, and he did it better than anyone in the league. In the 1996 NBA Finals against the Seattle SuperSonics, Rodman grabbed 19 rebounds in Game 2 and 11 more in the clinching Game 6.
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Dennis would help Chicago win three straight championships from 1996 to 1998, solidifying his legacy not just as one of the most unique characters in basketball history but also as one of its greatest competitors.
Related: "He's more impressive when you're playing with him than against him" - Dennis Rodman admits he was in awe of Scottie Pippen from day one
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