Dennis Rodman, when he retired, went down as one of the greatest defenders and rebounders the NBA has ever seen. The 6ft 7″ forward was drafted in 1986 by the Detroit Pistons. Joining the ‘Bad Boys’ was a great start for Rodman as it suited the way he played perfectly.
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Dennis happily took on the defensive assignment of the opponent team’s best players. While he was successful most of the times, there were times when he got schooled by his opponents. No one got the better of Dennis Rodman as much as Celtics legend Larry Bird.
When Rodman was a rookie in the league, Bird was already a 3x NBA Champion. The 6ft 9″ forward had a wide range of moves and a sharp tongue to complement all of that. The Worm learned about the same the hard way.
Dennis Rodman recalled how Larry Bird blew him out of the water
When Dennis Rodman matched against Larry Bird for the first time, he made the mistake of underestimating Larry Legend. It was during the 1987 Playoffs and the Pistons were facing the Celtics in the ECF. Talking about the same in an interview with Basketball Time Machine, Rodman recalled the incident and said,
“I tried my best to guard Larry Bird, and it didn’t work too well. He kind of schooled me the whole game. Every game we played, he said Dennis are you guarding me? Take that for you. And I was like, okay, I will take that, Larry. He made a jump shot and said Dennis do you like that? I said, man, to hell with you. Don’t worry about it. After I had a couple of years in the NBA under my belt, I said, okay, great, I belong in this league. All of a sudden, Larry Bird started to respect me.”
It sure wasn’t an easy experience for Rodman, but that’s when it all started changing for him as well.
How did Rodman become one of the league’s best defenders?
Well, according to Dennis Rodman, things changed for him after Head Coach Chuck Daly started trusting him even more. In the same interview, the Worm said,
“Chuck Daly saw I was so loose and had so much energy that I could go for 48 minutes per game and guard anybody in the world. He put the trust in me, and I always told Chuck, let me play, I will do anything you want me to do. He said go out and guard Larry Bird, and I didn’t know at that point who Larry was. I just thought he was a white guy in the NBA. The more I got to play Larry Bird, I had to figure out this game belongs to Dennis Rodman when it comes to defense and rebounding. That was my determination to go out and stop the best player on each team.”
I guess once he had the coach’s confidence, the Worm got the green light to be his best self.
