Dennis Rodman is considered one of professional basketball's all-time great rebounders. He helped lead the Detroit Pistons and later the Chicago Bulls to multiple titles.
Background
Professional basketball player Dennis Rodman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on May 13, 1961. A second-round draft pick in 1986 in the NBA draft, Rodman went on to become one of the league's dominant all-time rebounders. He helped lead the Detroit Pistons and later the Chicago Bulls to multiple championships. He was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2011.
Education
Rodman, who was 5 feet 11 inches (1.75 metres) tall when he graduated from high school in Dallas and who tried and failed to make the school basketball team four times, shot up more than another 7 inches (18 cm) and earned a spot on the Cooke County Junior College team in Dallas in 1981.
At Cooke County Jr. College, he walked on and played one season before dropping out and going to work as a janitor at an airport in Dallas. Still, his play hadn't gone unnoticed, and he was soon invited to enroll at Southeastern Oklahoma State.
Rodman's on-the-court tenacity overwhelmed opponents, and during his three years at the school he averaged close to 26 points and 16 rebounds per game. In the 1986 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons made the gangly but overly athletic 25-year-old Rodman a second round pick.
The marriage between the Pistons and Dennis Rodman was, for a number of years, a great one. Rodman's arrival helped usher in a new era in Pistons basketball. Led by head coach, Chuck Daly, whom Rodman came to adore, and point guard Isiah Thomas, Detroit became one of the elite teams in the NBA. The club won the championship in 1989 and again in 1990.
Rodman was a big reason why. A fierce defender and tenacious rebounder, Rodman was selected to the 1990 NBA All-Star team and tapped as defensive player of the year that same season. In 1992 he won the first of seven consecutive rebounding crowns.
In 1993, following the retirement of Daly, Rodman's relationship with the Pistons organization soured and he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs. Prior to the 1995-96 season, Rodman was traded again, this time to the Chicago Bulls, where he'd go on to team up with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to win three consecutive NBA titles.
Following his tenure in Chicago, Rodman signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for a brief run late in the 1999 season. He concluded his playing career the following year with the Dallas Mavericks.
Played a single match scoring 17 points for Torpan Pojat in the Finnish Elite League. A record audience of 7,420 people witnessed ToPo's 74-80 defeat to Honka of Espoo. [November 2005]
Rodman is a good friend of Kim Jong-un. His first trip to North Korea took place in February 2013. Since then, he says he’s visited six times. He calls Kim a “friend for life”. Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman has become the most high-profile American to meet the new leader of North Korea, vowing eternal friendship with Kim Jong-un at a basketball game in Pyongyang. Ending his unexpected round of basketball diplomacy, Rodman called Kim Jong-un an "awesome guy" and said his father and grandfather were "great leaders." And as a result has been condemned by some in America as a traitor and a dupe.
Views
Quotations:
"If you have a problem with my answer that's your problem, not my problem."
"I go out with white women. This makes a lot of people unhappy, mostly black women."
"This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can't see how deep it is."
Interests
Music & Bands
grunge, Pearl Jam
Connections
Rodman was married three times (Annie Bakes, Carmen Electra and Michelle Moyer) and he was divorced with all of them. He has a daughter named Alexis (born 1988) with his first wife. And with his last wife they have a son D.J. (born 2000) and daughter Trinity (born 2001).
The first NBA player in history to win five championships with two different teams: Detroit Pistons (1989, 1990), and Chicago Bulls (1996, 1997, 1998).
The first NBA player in history to win five championships with two different teams: Detroit Pistons (1989, 1990), and Chicago Bulls (1996, 1997, 1998).