Dennis Rodman is arguably the greatest menace among athletes, considering all sports. But when it came to will and determination, beating ‘The Worm’ took a lot even from the likes of Michael Jordan.
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The former Detroit Pistons forward has a long list of stories apart from his career achievements to prove the same. And one of those stories involves him, a training gym, Phil Jackson, Mike, and the whole Bulls squad, and a lot of sprinting.
When Dennis Rodman had his teammates including MJ breathless
Rodman was nothing if not a team guy. A typical “Dennis the Menace” story involves him partying wild or destroying an NBA legend with his spectacular defense on the basketball court, sometimes both.
But this one has him putting all his teammates into a situation where they had to run and take over him at sprinting so that they could slow down the pace of a training ground drill set up by coach Phil Jackson.
That drill involved the squad running in a line and when there was a whistle the coach, the last person would run to the front of the line and continue the run at his pace. Now Jordan and the boys came up with a solution – jog and jog and jog, no sprinting.
But for Rodman, who had just gotten a mouthful by Phil for being out of shape, it didn’t matter what the 6x Finals MVP said. He ran like a Bull and cared for nobody. It took the first member of that squad 4 laps to catch up to an out-of-shape Dennis. Listen to the whole bit in the GOAT’s own words.
Rodman and MJ’s relationship
Mike and Dennis teamed up when His Airness came back from his first retirement. Both of them were entirely different people and had their own way towards how they lived their life.
Jordan did not have many friends off the court, and his relationship with Rodman was no different. They were just colleagues with mutual respect for each other. Rodman coming to the Bulls with his rivalry with the team since the late 80s might also have something to do with it.
But Jordan also was never disrespectful towards the 6ft 7’ forward who never bugged against anybody on the basketball court in his 20-year professional career, or even after it.
