“Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal Down People’s Throats”: When Dennis Rodman Criticized NBA’s Marketing Strategy

Dennis Rodman, since his Spurs days, has been extremely outspoken. The Legendary Bulls guard has written multiple books and some of them have taken digs at the NBA and its superstars. Bad As I Wanna Be was one such book. In it, Rodman took digs at the popularity and success of Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal countless times. From being outright critical of how much money they made to pointing out how different his journey was, the Worm held nothing back. In one excerpt from the 1996 book, the 6ft 7″ rebounding genius also criticized the NBA for marketing MJ and Shaq a little too much.

Rodman has remained a controversial figure throughout his NBA career. While his time with the Detroit Pistons was relatively low-key, his eccentricity was far more defined since his trade to the Spurs.

His ‘wildness’ attracted a lot of popularity. In fact, Rodman’s popularity even rivaled that of the greatest talent in the league. However, Rodman was always bitter of the treatment he got. Perhaps it was this treatment that made him call out the NBA for favoring Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal.

Dennis Rodman was critical of NBA for favoring Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal

Dennis Rodman in his book Bad As I Wanna Be analyzed NBA’s success as a league. Taking NFL and MLB into consideration, Rodman claimed the NBA had been better than these two leagues.

He claimed that the NBA really knew how to market itself. The most important aspect of which was to not always show its stars in a positive light. However, he also believed there were a few problems with the league’s strategy.

Dennis stated that while NBA had successfully marketed its superstars, it focussed most of its energy on Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan. He called this limited form of marketing suffocating.

Rodman in Bad As I Wanna Be wrote: “The NBA is so big on marketing. They were ahead of football and baseball from the start. The league understood what could happen if it flooded people with positive images of the top players. But they’ve gotten so limited in who they market that it’s almost suffocating. Mostly it’s Michael and Shaq. They force those two guys down people’s throats.”

Rodman also had an issue with Shaq and MJ’s salary

Rodman in his first book also alleged that the system was built to work against him. He complained that while players like Jordan and O’Neal made $35 and $25 million respectively, he was paid far less compared to them.

He also claimed that whenever he questioned his $3 million salary, he was told to be patient. Perhaps it was wrong for Dennis to compare himself to two of the greatest talents in history.