Following his brief stints with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks, Dennis Rodman joined the ABA team Long Beach Jam, in December 2003. He was promised a measly $5,000 bonus if he managed to win the league title with the team. While he considered this amount low for his stature, he was ready to swallow his ego and play for the team. A successful run in the ABA perhaps might have been a way for his return to the NBA. He thought he had a great chance for a return to the Lakers, given that Karl Malone was injured in the 2003-04 season.
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Karl Malone suffered a knee injury during that season, which caused serious detriment to the Lakers roster. Given the injury situation for the Lakers, Rodman believed he would perfectly fit in as a power forward. This would have marked a fairytale return for the former Laker back into the team.
The Lakers never called Dennis Rodman back despite his interest in a return
After his disastrous stint with the Dallas Mavericks, Dennis Rodman was on brief hiatus, focussing on his wrestling and acting career. However, with Karl Malone’s injury in 2003, he believed he could fit well in the Lakers and have the perfect comeback.
Despite showing his interest in a return, then Lakers coach Phil Jackson never reverted. Rodman continued playing for ABA teams and in Europe before finally hanging up his shoes in 2006. Dennis Rodman realized that the internal conflict between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant at the Lakers might have given Jackson cold feet.
He was quite dejected from this missed opportunity, realizing his NBA career had ended on a rough note. Rodman’s experience can be well understood in the below excerpt from his autobiography I Should Be Dead By Now:
“I don’t know why Phil Jackson never pulled the trigger. He had every opportunity to do so. Maybe he got cold feet because of all the drama going on with Shaq and Kobe that season, not to mention Gary Payton, who never quite jelled in L.A”
Shaq described Dennis Rodman as the worst teammate he has played with
Shaq and Dennis Rodman were in a tiff together during their time with the Lakers. Rodman played 23 games for Los Angeles while having a quite antagonizing impact on Shaquille O’Neal. Speaking about the Worm, he once said in his podcast:
“Worst teammate? Dennis Rodman. He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He’d come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds.”
Despite the animosity, Shaq respected the Worm and his work ethic on the court. However, Dennis Rodman, on the other hand, believed that Shaq disliked him because he was more popular than the Lakers’ star center. Surely, Shaq did aspire to become like Rodman, grabbing as many rebounds as possible and becoming a defensive nightmare for opponent teams.
