Imagine the shock when you find out people around you are betting on when you will pass away. That is the kind of deep and dark rabbit hole that Dennis Rodman ended up in after retirement.
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With a storied career that spanned 14 years in the NBA, including 5 championships and 7 rebounding titles, Dennis was a lock for the hall of fame. And despite that, he fell right off a cliff and into the jaws of despair.
Retirement might have hit hard for some but to Dennis, it hit harder than anything. He flew straight to Las Vegas after his stint with the Dallas Mavericks and it was quite the torrid tale.
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Dennis Rodman left the NBA and dived headfirst into partying
In an interview with GQ, Rodman revealed that he was such a big name that clubs offered him $100,000 a night to make an appearance. And of course, the habit is not a healthy one. Keeping up appearances, drinking till dawn.
And it wasn’t even just clubs in the USA. Dennis’ repertoire meant he got offers from across the world.
But he was still spending money faster than he could make it. Without the structure NBA life provided, without an outlet for all his energy, he found himself, and not for the first time in his life, aimless. “They had bets in Vegas when I was 40 years old about what year I was going to die,” he tells me. “You go in like… what they call it? The sports books in the casinos. You go in and say, ‘Oh, 10 to 1 Dennis Rodman is going to die this year.’ That kind of shit.”
It became so bad at one point people bet on his lifespan. Because he was spending money rapidly and he was aimless, people around him could see how much of a downward spiral this was. Dennis says, “They had bets in Vegas when I was 40 years old about what year I was going to die,”. A harrowing tale.
He continued about the time saying, “You go in like… what they call it? The sports books in the casinos. You go in and say, ‘Oh, 10 to 1 Dennis Rodman is going to die this year.’ That kind of shit.”.
How his habits derailed a well-orchestrated comeback
Talk about the worst company you can imagine. People around you betting on your own demise. Startling, mind-numbing almost. For Dennis he was unfettered, he knew the capacity of his own vessel.
But of course, knowing your ability and doing something about it are two different things and in 2003, he was well out of it. He crashed his motorcycle in Las Vegas, outside a strip club no less.
He would later please to driving under the influence and the subsequent leg injury dashed all his hopes for returning to the NBA. While he may have turned a corner since and is far more humble today than he was during his heyday. His story is a warning sign to every pro-athlete on how quickly things can go wrong.
