Dennis Rodman, one of Michael Jordan‘s greatest former teammates, added defensive prowess to the Chicago Bulls to help them in their second three-peat. But before this, he was a big part of the Detroit Pistons, the team that was reputed to best handle MJ. In a recent appearance on the Undeniable podcast, Rodman discussed his playing days and deconstructed the Jordan Rules along with the way the Pistons tried to contain Michael Jordan. His Airness was a scoring maestro, and despite having such intense defensive tactics in place, Rodman admitted, “It was hard to keep that guy [Michael Jordan] under 30 points. It was hard. He was that good man!”
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Touching on the Jordan Rules, Rodman revealed that every time Jordan went for a bucket, the Pistons’ bad boys used to hit him and make him flop on the floor before being able to score. “If Michael goes for the basket, put his a** on the ground. You gotta hit him. Every time he went to the basket, we hit him and stuff like that,” said the 5x NBA champion on being able to contain Jordan’s scoring prowess.
Rodman then talked about the toughness of his era of basketball and the lack of respect among the current generation of players in the league. Indeed, the NBA was one of the most physically intensive basketball leagues during Rodman and Jordan’s time.
Describing the erstwhile era, Rodman remarked, “These players today, man, they don’t really respect how tough it was to play in that era. [They don’t] know how tough it is to get to the basket, get your teeth knocked out, go to the basket, get your head knocked off, and go to the basket and be on the ground and stuff like that all of a sudden, nobody wants to pick you up. They don’t understand that stuff how we played.”
On that note, Rodman called MJ the greatest basketball player ever, given that he could endure all of the physical and defensive punishment that the Pistons ensued upon him. The 7x rebounding champion revealed that Jordan used to get humbled by the Pistons every time and would often get hit by their defense or was no match to their physicality.
This forced Jordan to frequent the weight room and put in some bulk to match the physical prowess that Detroit tried to put up against him. The struggle and hustle to put up against the Bad Boy Pistons finally clicked in the Eastern Conference Finals of 1991. The Bulls swept the Pistons 4-0 in the series, on the way to the NBA Finals and eventually winning against the Lakers for their first championship that year.
Dennis Rodman considers Michael Jordan as the greatest player ever
Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan did not quite have the best relationship during their playing days. However, for Rodman, Jordan was the greatest basketball player ever. The 7x rebounding champion heavily favors his former teammate over the current career points leader, LeBron James as his preferred candidate in the GOAT debate.
Rodman truly believes that Jordan could come about and average 50 points in today’s era of basketball. Speaking on First Take, the legendary forward said, “If Michael played in this era, he would average 50 points a game.” He further added how, in the changed defensive scenario in the league, Jordan would thrive over all his opponents, having faced a rough Pistons team back in the 80s. Perhaps, for Rodman, MJ is still the greatest player of all time for all of such reasons.
