These are 2 pictures that practically define the life of Dennis Rodman as a professional basketball player. On the court he was one of the hardest playing players on the court every game. Off the court...he was certifiably crazy. He wore a wedding dress to a wedding in which he was marrying himself. Outwardly flamboyant and never apologetic, Rodman wondered if because of that he would never make the Hall of Fame. Well, he got his answer this week. Approximately a week after having his jersey retired in Detroit, he made the Hall of Fame class of 2011 with Chris Mullin.
Dennis Rodman was definitely one of the best defenders to ever play the game. He could absolutely shut down any big man in the game. I have one lasting memory of Dennis Rodman. In the NBA finals one year against the Jazz. It was no secret the Karl Malone hated Dennis Rodman, and Rodman made no secret about the fact that he was trying to make Malone hate him even more. That was a huge portion of his game, get in his opponent's head. And in this particular game, Rodman was deep inside Malone's head. In one particular play, Rodman and Malone went after a rebound causing a loose ball that ended up going the other way with the Jazz. All the way back up the floor they were stumbling over each other and taking each other down. Rodman ended up with the foul, but he would gladly trade that foul for the results of the mind games he played.
Rodman's stats are definitely worthy of the HOF. He led the NBA in rebounds 7 straiht years, and he had a career rebounding average of 13.1 RPG. He also won 5 NBA titles (2 with the Pistons: 1989, 1990; and 3 with the Bulls: 1996, 97, 98). He was an All Star twice, defensive player of the year twice, and named to the All NBA Defensive First Team 7 times. And one stat I find amazing is that he had almost 2x as many rebounds in his career as he had points. He was on the court for 3 reasons: rebound, play defensive, and cause all sorts of problems for the other teams' players.
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