The Chicago Bulls dynasty had 2 parts to it. They won their first three-peat with some different players around Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen than the one they had for the second go-around. While the likes of Horace Grant and John Paxson are still remembered well, players like Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr attained the elite honor of being part of the 96′ Bulls that won 72 games.
And Dennis Rodman was a huge part of the second three-peat for the Bulls despite having been a part of the Bad Boy Pistons and being called an a**hole by MJ. His defense and hustle on the court were as iconic as his eccentricities off it. A lot of Rodman’s stories were recounted by his teammates during The ‘Last Dance documentary’, and one of them was about how he would need to play himself back into shape.
Michael Jordan recounted a practice before midseason when Rodman had to be fetched from Las Vegas after he took an impromptu vacation and then ended up forcing the rest of the Bulls to go all out during a drill just so he could get back in shape (via Insider):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsvgkGVceQw
“Phil, now, his whole motive is to get Dennis back in shape. Now Phil blows the whistle, whoever’s at the back get to the front. Now you can’t stop, whoever’s in front controls the pace.
“So I tell everybody in that group, ‘Look, whoever gets in the front of that row, slow down to a f—in’ walk. We’re just going to jog and jog and jog and jog.’
“Dennis takes off — boom. (Jackson) blows the whistle, now we cannot stop until we get back in front of Dennis — it took us four laps to catch up to Dennis.”
Dennis Rodman’s personality was a large part of what made him the Top 75 player he became, and in cases like these, his teammates knew to accept the bad with the good. While Jordan certainly didn’t seem happy about it, he was cognizant of the fact that Rodman’s contributions to the team were essential for him to win.
