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!
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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!
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.
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.