“Dennis Rodman, I’m going to kick you out of the league!”: When former NBA commissioner David Stern threatened to expel The Worm from the NBA for having too many tattoos

Nithin Joseph | 23/05/2022
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Dennis Rodman was well known as the ‘bad boy’ of the NBA in the 1990s. In fact, The Worm’s tattoos nearly got him kicked out of the league!

The five-time champion, Dennis Rodman is known around the world for a number of reasons. More often it happens to be because of all the wrong ones.

However, that isn’t to say he was a rotten egg. Rodman was a member of two of the greatest NBA dynasties of all time. The Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s and the infamous ‘Bad Boy’  Detroit Pistons. Safe to say, The Worm embodied the ‘bad boy’ lifestyle of his previous team.

This was the case both during his time as a player as well as after he retired. Whether it was gambling in Las Vegas or making trips to North Korea!

Also Read: “Madonna and I are still cool, we’re on that level”: Dennis Rodman revealed that his relationship with pop icon hasn’t deteriorated over 2 decades

In fact, Rodman’s antics would catch up with him on a number of occasions while he was still in the NBA. Particularly catching the eye of former commissioner David Stern.

Stern once threatened to kick Dennis Rodman out of the NBA for having too many tattoos

In the 1990s, then NBA commissioner David Stern was desperately trying to change the image of the NBA. At the time, the league was known to have a drug problem and was a playground for ‘bad boy’ athletes.

As such, it did not help that the NBA was stuck with the quintessential ‘bad boy’ in Rodman. A person who Stern wasn’t particularly fond of.

In fact, he once brought The Worm to his office and threatened to kick him out of the league if he did not stop getting tattoos. Of course, Dennis being Dennis, didn’t listen.

Also Read: ‘Dennis Rodman got fined $200,000 for headbutting the referee’: When Phil Jackson laughed in disbelief as the Chicago Bulls star got ejected

It is hard to imagine what the league would have looked like without Dennis. Luckily for him, David Stern didn’t notice the new tattoos amongst the old ones.

Post Edited By: Raahib Singh
David Stern Dennis Rodman

About the author

Nithin Joseph

Nithin is a content writer at The SportsRush. Like his favorite athlete Kobe Bryant, the company has helped Nithin elevate his writing skills to a whole new level, especially as an NBA content writer. With over 1500 articles to his name, Nithin's love for the sport knows no bounds. And, as he continues to watch the sport on a daily basis, he hopes his fascination with the NBA, especially the Miami Heat will inspire more and more readers to give the sport a chance. Perhaps, one day making basketball in India as big as it is in the United States.

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