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“It took us four laps to catch up to Dennis Rodman!”: When Michael Jordan discussed the time his former Bulls teammate left him in complete shock after a wild Vegas vacation

Tonoy Sengupta
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“Show me the money!”: Michael Jordan tops list of highest-paid athletes of all-time even after retiring nearly 20 years ago, with $2.6 billion as lifetime earnings

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan was once in awe of Dennis Rodman after he was brought back from Las Vegas.

During his heyday, there weren’t a lot of basketball activities that Michael Jordan couldn’t do. At the end of the day, he IS Michael Jordan. His name brings back the most iconic basketball moments of all time.

His mentality towards the sport was reminiscent of an angry dog whose bone had been taken from him. And when it was game time, his focus was harder than a diamond and absolutely unwavering.

After all that brilliance though, the man needed to relax, at least for a little bit during every offseason. And during this time, if there were to be any basketball activity, the man wouldn’t quite be on point. To those that don’t agree with that statement, we’re sorry that you think the man wasn’t human.

Coming back to the point though, frankly any player, no matter how great, would be a bit off the mark for a little while during, or even after their vacation. Any player, except Dennis Rodman that is.

Let’s take a looksie back at a small part of ‘The Last Dance’, shall we?

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“Dennis Rodman was always there”: Michael Jordan talks about the moment his teammate left him in disbelief

You probably don’t need us to tell you that Dennis Rodman has always been a bit of a character.

He has done some weird things during his lifetime, but the one to top that list for MJ was probably his trip to Vegas in the middle of the season.

When he first asked for the vacation, Phil Jackson agreed to give him 48 hours. When he went there though, Rodman did not return to the team for a little over a week, before he had to hilariously be dragged back.

When someone is coming back from the kind of partying the Rodzilla did, you’d expect them to be a bit groggy, right? Well… here is how it went for the man himself, according to Michael Jordan.

“After his vacation, Dennis comes back to practice. Phil’s whole motive is to get Dennis back in shape. So, we start this drill called the Indian drill,” Jordan said in The Last Dance. “Everybody starts running in a line, and Phil blows the whistle. Whoever’s at the back, run to the front.

Now, you can’t stop. Whoever’s in the front controls the pace. So, I’m saying, ‘F***, this is kind of messed up because now I’m getting caught up in Dennis getting in shape drill when in essence, I hadn’t taken a vacation.’ So, I tell everybody in the group, ‘Look, whoever gets in the front of that row, slow down to a f****** walk.

We just gonna jog and jog and jog and jog.’ So, Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler, they all get to the line, we just slowly running and then Dennis takes off. Boom! Now, he (Jackson) blows the whistle. Now, we cannot stop until we get back in front of Dennis. It took us four laps to catch up to Dennis. It was like in his psyche. He needed to get away, but in all honesty, Dennis was always there. He was always on point.”

We don’t know how he did it. But, with a belly still full of alcohol, and probably so many of the world’s other substances, Dennis Rodman managed to stay far ahead of the pack for four whole rounds.

The phrase ‘built different’ doesn’t begin to define this man.

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About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta

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Tonoy Sengupta is a Senior Editor at The SportsRush. Coming from an athletically inclined family, he has been surrounded by sports ever since he was 4 years old. But, while initially pouring all his time into Football (soccer), at 14, Tonoy discovered basketball through the countless highlights of Stephen Curry humiliating players from Curry Land. And just like that, a fiery passion for the game was ignited within Tonoy. And soon after, he decided to become a student of journalism, graduating in 2022, and choosing sports as his area of interest. Today, you can find him spending 99% of his time browsing through every type of content on every team in the NBA, before uncorking everything he has found to the world. In the 1% he isn't doing this, you can find him playing Basketball, Football, Volleyball, or practically any other sport he has had the opportunity to learn.

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