Dennis Rodman Didn’t Stand Up To Greet Phil Jackson During Meeting At Jerry Krause’s House Where Bulls Were Deciding If They Really Wanted To Acquire Him From Spurs: ‘Stand Up Dennis, Take Your Hat Off, Shake Hands’

The Chicago Bulls stunned the NBA world when they acquired Dennis Rodman from the San Antonio Spurs in October 1995. 

No one was more surprised than Rodman himself. 

“I was shocked the Chicago Bulls even asked me to come,” Rodman said in The Last Dance docuseries. “I think I was a little more eccentric for them.”

Before the Bulls-Spurs trade went through, Rodman met with Phil Jackson at Jerry Krause’s house. Jackson spoke about that meeting in “The Last Dance.”

“Oh, it was awful,” Jackson said. “I walk into Jerry Krause’s house. He’s sitting on the couch. He’s got a pool boy hat over his eyes, he’s got the rings in his nose and his mouth, and he doesn’t stand up to meet me. 

“So I said, ‘Stand up Dennis. Take your hat off, shake hands. Let’s go outside and talk.'”

Added Rodman: “We had to break bread then, at the house. He said, ‘Dennis, you wanna come play for the Bulls?’ I said, ‘I don’t care. Whatever. What’s up?'”

The Bulls traded Will Perdue to the Spurs for Rodman, who played three seasons in Chicago. Rodman helped the Bulls win three straight NBA titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998. 

Michael Jordan called Rodman “one of the smartest” players he ever played with. 

“Dennis was one of the smartest guys I played with,” Jordan said in The Last Dance. “He understood defensive strategy with all the rotations. He had no limits in terms of what he does. … He was a new character, but I knew Dennis, and I knew what he could do basketball-wise.”

Rodman averaged 5.2 points and 15.3 rebounds with the Bulls, who beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA Finals and the Utah Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals. Rodman won three straight rebounding titles in Chicago. 

“You got the great Michael Jordan, the great Scottie Pippen, the great Phil Jackson, but if you take me away from this team, do they still win a championship? I don’t think so,” Rodman said in The Last Dance. “I love Michael Jordan to death. I love Scottie Pippen, all these guys, but they really don’t do the things that I do. 

“I’m the only guy who does all the dirty work, taking abuse from other players. I wanna go out there and get my nose broke. I wanna get cut. Something that’s gonna really just bring out the hurt, the pain. I wanna feel that.”

Rodman finished his NBA career with averages of 7.3 points and 13.1 rebounds. He won five championships and two Defensive Player of the Year Awards and made eight All-Defensive teams, two All-Star teams and two All-NBA teams. 

“I used to have my friends late at night, shit, 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, go to the gym. I said, ‘Shoot the ball.’ I said, ‘Shoot over here, shoot over there.’ I’d just sit there, react, react. I practiced a lot about the angle of the ball and trajectory of it,” Rodman said in Episode 3 of The Last Dance docuseries. “So basically, I started learning how to put myself in a position to get the ball. I was pretty much like that rash on players. That rash you can’t ever get rid of.”