Dennis Rodman Skipped Bulls Practice During ’98 Finals To Fly To Detroit And Wrestle With Hulk Hogan: ‘I Need To Always Do Me’

After the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz in Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals on June 7, Dennis Rodman skipped practice the next day to fly to Detroit and wrestle with Hulk Hogan. 

The Bulls fined Rodman $10,000. However, Chicago head coach Phil Jackson never threw Rodman under the bus. 

“I just think that Phil realized that I need to always do me,” Rodman said in The Last Dance documentary. “Just go do what I do. … They’re gonna get 100% when I’m on the court.”

Game 4 of the 1998 NBA Finals took place on June 10 and Rodman had a spectacular game. He finished with six points and 14 rebounds while shooting 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. 

Scottie Pippen, who played three seasons with Rodman on the Bulls, wrote about Rodman’s theatrics in his book, “Unguarded.”

“First, he skipped a team meeting and a mandatory media session,” Pippen wrote. “The Bulls fined him $10,000 for missing the meeting. The league fined him the same amount for blowing off the media. Then he had the audacity to fly to Detroit to appear on a cable-TV wrestling show with Hulk Hogan … in the middle of the NBA Finals.

“Dennis was at practice the next day. In Game 4, which we won, 86-82, he finished with 14 rebounds and 6 points, including two critical free throws to give us a 4-point lead with 43.8 seconds left. That was Dennis Rodman in a nutshell. 

“One day, he acts like someone who should be committed. The next, he chases down every loose ball as if the future of mankind depended on it. Who were any of us to question the man’s, shall I say, eccentricities? Maybe Dennis needed those other outlets to be at his best on the basketball court.”

The Bulls defeated the Jazz in the 1998 NBA Finals in six games for their sixth championship in franchise history. Michael Jordan won his sixth Finals MVP, Pippen won his sixth title and Rodman captured his fifth ring. 

After the 1997-98 season, Jordan retired from the NBA, the Bulls traded Pippen to the Houston Rockets and Rodman signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.