NBA legend Scottie Pippen was surprised by how smart of a player Dennis Rodman was when they became teammates on the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls acquired Rodman from the San Antonio Spurs in 1995.
“As the days wore on, I was surprised at how reserved he was,” Pippen wrote in his book. “There is Dennis Rodman the spectacle, and Dennis Rodman the man, and the two are very different. Dennis kept to himself most of the time in training camp, working on his conditioning and his craft. He was often the first player to arrive at the gym and the last to leave. I never saw anyone else learn the triangle as fast as he did. Learn it? He mastered it.”
Rodman played for the Detroit Pistons before playing for the Spurs and Bulls. He hurt Pippen and Michael Jordan several times, so many people in the NBA were stunned the Bulls acquired Rodman.
In the summer of 1995, the Bulls asked Pippen and Jordan if they were okay with bringing Rodman on. Neither Jordan nor Pippen objected.
“So, in the summer of 1995, when Phil Jackson asked how I felt about the possibility of the Bulls acquiring Dennis, who was then 34, I didn’t object,” Pippen wrote. “Nor did Michael. Not that there weren’t some concerns. Of course there were. Michael’s reaction was something to the effect of ‘Dennis Rodman? Really?’ Yes, really, and it made a lot of sense.”
Pippen, Jordan and Rodman were teammates from 1995-96 to 1997-98. The Bulls won three straight NBA championships and went 72-10 in 1995-96.
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.
“He studied the tendencies of his opponents and teammates, planting himself in perfect rebounding position even before guys got into shooting mode,” Pippen wrote. “Dennis possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ. He could have a tremendous impact on a game without scoring a single point. How many players can you say that about? Phil assured Michael and me that the team would be able to get rid of Dennis if he became too much of a distraction. That would be stated explicitly in the contract. Good to know.”
The Bulls won three NBA titles before acquiring Rodman. However, Rodman said in “The Last Dance” docuseries that Chicago wouldn’t have won three more rings without him.
“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.”
Jordan, arguably the greatest player in NBA history, called Rodman “one of the smartest” players he ever played with in “The Last Dance.”
“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.”
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