‘The Last Dance’: Dennis Rodman’s Spurs Seasons, Sandwiched Between NBA Title Runs, Are Lost In The Shuffle
Five championships, a rough on-court mentality and a memorable flamboyance describe Dennis Rodman’s NBA career. More subdued but coming into his own, he spent seven years with the Detroit Pistons, winning the 1989 and 1990 NBA Finals. The following two seasons, “The Worm” pulled down a league-high 18.7 and 18.3 rebounds, respectively.
Rodman’s Pistons days are documented through any piece of Pistons title media, and now his Chicago Bulls days have returned to the forefront. He will be prominently featured in the next installment of “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan. The tales of Rodman’s run on the three-peat Bulls are bound to raise eyebrows and highlight some of the NBA’s greatest teams ever.
However, between those Detroit and Chicago days, Rodman spent two seasons—128 combined games—with the San Antonio Spurs. He was the frontcourt partner to David Robinson before Tim Duncan, and the Spurs compiled 62 and 59-win seasons in 1993-94 and 1994-95, respectively.
be traded after head coach Chuck Daly’s departure. So, the road to the Alamo City was complicated.
Rodman joined a Spurs team that had success but never went over the top. A Robinson-helmed group of veterans comprised the team, and before Gregg Popovich’s arrival, and they won at least 47 games in each seasons since 1989-90. This was the piece to change the game on the boards, given the disparity between “The Admiral” and the rest of the team in rebounds in 1992-93 (11.7 to 5.8, the next-highest rebounder). Rodman stepped in that first season with 17.3 rebounds per game, toppling Robinson and leading the league while making the Spurs an elite team in an area of need.
The same carried into what became Rodman’s second and final season with the Silver and Black, with 16.8 rebounds, but in just 49 games and 26 starts. He shared time with, among others, Terry Cummings, who was once the centerpiece of another deal to give Robinson a power forward partner.
This situation was no different than Detroit, though.
Rodman was suspended in November 1994 for a combination of missing a team bus and team meeting, and he threw a bag of ice at then-coach Bob Hill, per the Washington Post. It was the pinnacle of the antics that steadily developed in San Antonio, turning this eccentric basketball player into the personality he would be known for in Chicago.
The talent was always prevalent, which led to Rodman making it through two years in San Antonio, and as the team’s second-highest paid player both times. He was valuable on the court, but the extra baggage ended his tenure with yet another team, moving to the Bulls via trade for Will Perdue. Three titles, Rodman cemented his Hall of Fame legacy.
While only the middle of his NBA career, Rodman had a notable, short run with the Spurs that could have been more. His teams approached the precipitous of the NBA Finals, teasing him winning a title with three different organizations, but the outcomes elsewhere made that point of his basketball life a footnote.
NBA, Dannis rodman, 128
