Dennis Rodman had an interesting NBA career, which ended up with him being the greatest rebounder and role player of all time. Everything could have been a lot different for him if it wasn’t for basketball.
Rodman started playing the beautiful game at an old age, but that wasn’t a problem for him. The Worm became a solid prospect and was eventually drafted to the NBA, where he would become a legend. Dennis was so good during those times that he was expected to be a top-15 pick in 1986, but that’s something he wanted to avoid.
Back in the day, he was projected to go at 11th, a selection that would take him to Milwaukee to join the Bucks. However, Dennis didn’t like that idea and wanted to play for a different team instead.
It seems like somebody listened to him and prevented the Bucks to pick him. Talking on the Basketball Time Machine Youtube channel, the 5x NBA champion revealed that he had no intention of going to Milwaukee, and he was relieved when the 1971 NBA champions ignored him (2:20).
“I won a couple of MVP tournaments before the draft. They projected me to go number 11 to the Milwaukee Bucks but thank god, thank god I got pneumonia and I got sick and all of a sudden I dropped to Detroit. John Salley was the 11th pick for Detroit and they picked me No. 26 or 27, and that was a blessing in disguise. Just to be drafted by the Detroit Pistons organization that gave me the identity to be a man, to grow up as a human being, and I can’t thank those guys enough to groom me to go and pursue my career. That’s awesome.”
As Rodman himself said, that was a blessing in disguise. He went on to win two championships with the Detroit Pistons, earning a bad reputation around the league for being part of the Bad Boys. After being a shy person, Rodman completely changed his personality, becoming the wild guy we have known for a long time now.
He went on to win three more championships with the Chicago Bulls from 1996 through 1998, confirming his status as a legend of the game, posting incredible numbers with the six-time NBA champions. We’ll never know how his career would have gone if he went to the Milwaukee Bucks, but Dennis surely is happy he didn’t have to find out.
