Ron Artest: Is Crazy A Bad Thing?
Subject #2: Dennis Rodman
“Dennis f**king Rodman,” Shaquille O’Neal mutters as he begins to tell a quintessential Rodman story. This particular anecdote is from Shaq’s days as a teammate with Rodman in LA. Dennis was never much for punctuality, which is why no one was surprised when Dennis was so late to The Forum that he interrupted coach Kurt Rambis’ pre game speech. But when they saw Dennis enter the locker room dressed as a woman, chomping on a chicken leg he just pulled from the giant bucket of fried chicken he held under his arm…well, that was an eye-opener.
The Worm managed to run off 5 titles in his career. Who else can say they did that?
That was just Dennis. He was a little eccentric, a little peculiar and 100% insane.
So you’re probably saying to yourself, “What? Dennis Freaking Rodman is the example of When Crazy Goes Right? Didn’t he kick a camera man in the junk (click here)?” Look, I never said the dude was perfect. In fact, I’m making the point that he is completely insane. The difference between Dennis Rodman and Mike Tyson is longevity. Mike flamed out with rape charges and ear biting incidents, while Dennis was able to parlay his insanity into 5 NBA Championships. Want to take a guess as to how many players in the modern NBA era (post 1976 merger) have more championships than Dennis Rodman?
Four.
Only four players in the last 40 years have more NBA titles than Dennis Rodman. They are Robert Horry (7), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6), Michael Jordan (6) and Scottie Pippen (6).
In addition to being undeniably cuckoo, Dennis was the hardest worker and greatest rebounder the game had ever seen. It’s an absolute disgrace that he isn’t in the hall of fame. Just look at this stats: Rodman Career Stats. He’s the only player to average over 18 rebounds a game in a season since the NBA-ABA merger, and he did it twice. Yet when you ask anyone who has followed basketball over the last 30 years who was the craziest player they ever saw in the NBA, they will almost certainly say Dennis Rodman.
Make no mistake, Dennis Rodman was completely and utterly crazy. At any given moment the dude was two seconds from bouncing off the walls and through the window. That’s what was so great about him. Come to think of it, he is so entertainingly crazy that I’m not sure why he doesn’t have a recurring role on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Someone needs to make this happen.
Ron Ron is to Kobe as Denis was to Mike? We'll see...
Rodman consistently managed to use his craziness to his advantage. In the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals, he was able to get inside the head of future Hall of Famer Karl Malone and change the series. Rodman’s antics completely threw Malone off his game to the point that Dennis was in complete control of their individual match up. This battle within the battle was crucial to the Bulls back-to-back victories over the Jazz.
Was Dennis a better player than Karl? Of course not. He wasn’t even close to being better than The Mailman, but it didn’t matter.
Dennis Rodman used his craziness to his advantage, something Ron Artest needs to do with the Lakers.
Next: “Next Page: Time for Ron Ron to Get Crazy”
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