Dennis Rodman — Hall of Fame basketball player and Hall of Fame wild personality — is back in the news. Actually, I’m not sure the legendary Piston and Bull (among others) was really ever out of the news. But he’s making headlines again as he is in North Korea?
For fun, let’s take a look at Rodman’s 10 craziest moments (or the ones I picked out of hundreds of options, anyway).
10. Dennis Rodman goes to North Korea as a basketball ambassador. Rodman in a country testing nuclear weapon missiles, I don’t see what could possibly go wrong. This is happening right now, in 2013, as Rodman is there with three Harlem Globetrotters as basketball ambassadors. The idea is to break down barriers by having Rodman teach basketball clinics and play some pick-up games with the North Koreans. All for a Vice Media production to air on HBO in early April. Again, I can’t imagine this going poorly.
9. The movie “Double Team.” If you’ve never seen Rodman’s 1999 action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme, do not rent it. Stay away. You can do anything short of taking up smoking with those two hours and your life will be better for it. Rodman did win a lot of awards for the film — it was a Razzies hit.
8. Rodman dresses in wedding gown so he can marry himself. To promote the book “Bad As I Wanna Be” Rodman said he was bisexual, dressed in a wedding gown at a book signing and said he was going to marry himself. He said he got $10 million for the book and the stunt, by the way, so think about what you would do for $10 million before casting blame here.
7. MTV’s “Rodman World Tour.” Back in 1996 MTV had this idea that having Dennis Rodman traveling the world and meeting other celebrities would make a great show (this was before MTV figured out it was cheaper and better television to just throw a few unknown a****** in a house together). The show was generally filled with awkward moments and meetings with the likes of Jay Leno, and Whoopi Goldberg.
6. Rodman kicks a photographer in the… groin. There are many moments of Dennis Rodman just losing it on the court, but this moment is one of the most famous and replayed.
5. Rodman dates Madonna. It was short lived, just a few glorious months in 1994, but this was the ultimate strange celebrity couple. It filled the tabloids and would have minted TMZ millions if it existed back then. Rodman said during their relationship Madonna wanted him to get her pregnant. I think we can all be thankful that didn’t work out.
4. Rodman enters the wrestling ring. Back in 1998 he joined Hulk Hogan and whoever else in the rogue New World Order where he wrestled against Karl Malone. Not surprisingly, Rodman was actually pretty good at the fake wrestling thing.
3. Rodman saying Larry Bird was overrated because he was white. This was early, pre-tats, Detroit Pistons Dennis Rodman saying what frankly to this day is strongly believed by some in the African-American community. Of course, Rodman said this after Bird’s Celtics just beat his Pistons in the 1987 playoffs. It’s also not true. Ask Magic Johnson about it. You don’t finish with career averages of 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists per game with three rings and three MVPs because of the color of your skin.
2. Rodman headbutts a referee. Nope, you can’t do that. Rodman was with the Bulls in 1996 and was ejected late in the first quarter of a random regular season. And he snaps — he headbutts the referee, rips off his jersey, knocks over a Gatorade container then leaves. Best part of the video is the bemused Phil Jackson.
1. The night Rodman slept in a car in the Palace of Auburn Hills parking lot with a shotgun on his lap. That really happened and he discussed it in his book “Bad as I Want To Be.” Clearly Rodman was and is dealing with serious mental issues in his life and that leads to scary moments like this where he said he contemplated suicide. Rodman was rich and famous but said he felt empty inside. He didn’t kill himself, what he decided that night was he needed to stop being who other people wanted him to be. He was not going to be phony; he was going to be himself. And that led to a lot of the moments above, Rodman being Rodman.