#90sBlockbusters DENNIS RODMAN Feature-DEMOLITION MAN

Hot Rod. 

By TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

(In the first of our #90sBlockbusters theme series of features on the best characters of the golden era of the NBA we look at Dennis Rodman's turning point time with the San Antonio Spurs for our episode, 'Demolition Man' (thanks for the name inspiration John Salley), featuring italicised quotes by Wesley Snipes' Simon Phoenix character from the movie. For Rodman's career retrospective from the Detroit Pistons to the Chicago Bulls, check out our 2011 Hall of Fame celebratory piece, 'In Rod We Trust'.)

"I could have been a bomb. I could have been in jail. I could have been dead. But I worked my ass off to get HERE". - Dennis Rodman ('The Last Dance') 

"Greetings, what's your bogle."

007. 69. These were the numbers Rodman wanted on the back of his jersey if Dennis was going to continue doing Dallas like Debbie. What a Maverick like Mel Gibson! At that point you just knew his 72 wasn't going to get raised to the rafters like the wonderfully strange like him fact that his Lakers jersey of the same number became a Mitchell and Ness sought after throwback. Even if he didn't play more than a M.J. 23 games with the Lakers...let alone a seventy or 82 (still glad you'll always be a Laker for life though Dennis. Here's to the purple and gold hair). We all know however that 91 deserves its place in the rafters with all the banners he helped number 23 and 33 put up there in United Center for the Chicago Bulls. It's not a reach like that amazing, absolutely iconic image of him reaching for that rebound, as vertical as if he was on a table, or the Dion Waiters edible just hit. And maybe this ESPN and Netflix 'Last Dance' that is saving us all right now stuck at home alone like Culkin in social isolation, will finally be the first steps to all that for the man who gave the most brutally honest and emotionally heartfelt Hall of Fame speech we've ever seen...although Michael Jordan still has the crying meme. Some folks get all the credit. But others they'll never forget it. Like the purists know. This game is as much about X as it is about O. And here's one man who could change the game without even taking a single shot like Magic. The rebounding machine. No not the round mound of Chuck, but Dennis Rodman baby!

"Blast from the past!"

Daly's Detroit Pistons really were the Bad Boys before Martin Lawrence and when Will Smith was still a Fresh Prince. And Dennis was a menace before the black and red stripes. You only have to see this defensive dog waltzing with Magic Johnson in Episode III of 'The Last Dance' closer than the Zeke cheek of an Isiah Thomas kiss for proof. "He's a pest" Supersonic legend Gary Payton (a trash talking one himself) says over the footage about the "f### up person". "He changed the game just by his presence". Look at the frustration on Earvin's face as Rodman stopped Showtime like Jordan would to end the 80's the original M.J. and Larry Bird, redefined, changing the face of the sport and how the game was seen worldwide in popularity before the no one like Mike took the golden era of the 90's to new air as we came and flew with him like Sinatra as Money touched the sky like leaving a dollar up on the backboard for street G.O.A.T, Earl Manigualt to pluck in Rucker Park. But as crazy as this play was for a young hit Rod, where were the tattoos? What colour was his hair? The natural look. You're kidding right? Nope! Thomas. Joe Dumars. Rick Mahorn. Bill Laimbeer. Our man John 'The Spider' Salley, star of 'Bad Boys' I and II, but not 'For Life'. The Detroit Pistons were all about hard nosed, hard work. Basketball may have been beautiful, but like the Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and BIG Ben Wallace (DUUUUMMM!) Bad Boys sequel that dethroned the death of a dynamic duo dynasty of Phil Jackson's Shaq and Kobe, second three-peat-ing Lakers (that also had Hall of Famers, The Mailman, Karl Malone and The Glove, Gary Payton) the assembly line of Piston players made ugly plays just that good looking. Beating you up on the floor they weren't here for the slicked, Dapper Dan of a GQ Pat Riley's Showtime a Lakers. They showed Bird and the classic Celtics that their green with envy hard work was nothing like the nosed down grind of blue collars. But still, "when (Dennis) first came to Detroit, he was an innocent, beautiful person. But a little naive about like the world", as Isiah said. Or "he was simple at that time" as Salley added to the documentary, before talking about a beautiful camping story Dennis told, getting away and  "looking at the stars". So what the hell happened?!

"Play ball."

San Antonio happened. That's what happened to the guy Pistons late, great coach Chuck Daly couldn't have been "more proud" to be "associated with" as he called the young Dennis Rodman a, "coaches dream." He may have built the troublemaker reputation in Detroit as he tell us in 'The Last Dance' but he finessed it like an M.J. fadeaway in The Alamo with pink hair under all that pink and turquoise. At The Admiral's port even with the professional, Naval inspirational of David Robinson who probably still had his own Basketball uniform cleaned, ironed and folded at the bottom of his bed after games, even though they had someone else to do that for him. But before the Twin Towers of D-Rob and some big Hall of Fundamental called Tim Duncan in Texas there was some guy who told the fans on appreciation night, "you can like me, or you can hate me, all I know is one thing; when I step on this floor I'm gonna get things popping." And oh did he. And off it too. As soon as he took his baseball cap off and revealed the Wesley Snipes, Simon Phoenix blonde dyed mohawk (the first of more hairstyles than all those dog-eared piled stacks of magazines in hair salons can carry), the 'Demolition Man' was born for the Van Damme 'Double Team' (see what they did there?) actor. From East to West. The Pistons to Phoenix, or whoever. "Simon says, bleed". "Simon says...die". Rodman's time with the Spurs (7.6 points and 16.8 rebounds per), Robinson, Dale Ellis and Del Negro wasn't as legendary as his time in the Bull-pen, running with Chicago, or his Bad Boy birth in Motown. But it was much more than his Hollywood days or his last shot in the Wild West like J.R. (Rider) with Dallas. And more importantly it was probably the most pivotal moment of his career catalyst for a post player who pre-championship was about to blow up in a colour as effervescent as the ones he'd spray in his hair before each game from a can like he was sticking his hand up a vending machines a##. Like the time he 33 gave it up for Scottie Pippen's injury return in subtle solidarity and symbolism like Will Smith's 'Focus' conman putting the number 55 everywhere for B.D. Wong to bet on it, whilst the 124 "woo, woo's" (that is the Mandarin for the number 5) of the Rolling Stone's 'Sympathy For The Devil' plays. Rainbow scalp like the old San An colours. Nice day for a white wedding with him in the dress. Dating Madonna, 'Like A Virgin' as she told him to be whoever the f### he wanted to be (all whilst she "done broke (his) d###"). All whilst born again Christian David Robinson tried to convert a man that used to take mid-season vacations in Vegas with Jordan looking for him like Bradley Cooper and them in 'The Hangover'. No dice! "I can't live that life". Headbutting John Stockton. Intoxicated on a chopper like a son of anarchy. Riding shotgun with a shotgun like this was literally 'The Alamo' in Texas soon that would be Rodman's last shot with San Antonio. Holding up a towel with a Sharpie that read, "I'm sorry. Please let me play", soon he would. But like after a bad breakup all for someone else. As The Worm wormed his way to Chicago for the original big three with Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan that fit as Scottie said, "like a hand in a glove". And the rest they say for this Beastie Boy 'Maestro' like a Prince 'Partyman' in this LL Cool J 'Bad' documentary that's 'Been All Around The World' like a Diddy and Ma$e sampling Bowie dance is history. Six times over. Now how's that for being spurred on?

"Look, you can't take away people right to be a##holes". 

But you best believe he ain't one.

"I created this monster"!-Dennis Rodman ('The Last Dance')