Dennis Rodman; Lakers and the Mavs

[KB-Pau-DH2012]

He had no veteran players on those teams to put him in line. None of those teams had a megastar that had won anything yet, so he felt he could do whatever the hell he wanted which he did.

It could be that, but I mean c'mon, Shaq was Shaq and he was still widely respected at the time despite not having rings.

That team was 1 yr away from having Phil (Kurt Rambis just couldn't cut the mustard in that 98-99 shortened season as an interim after the firing of Del Harris), Ron Harper and Brian Shaw.


It was just really bad timing. The Lakers should have waited the following yr when Phil came to LA in the summer of '99.

[Shlumpledink]

Rodman was a party animal and a bad influence on shaq, Shaq likes to party and he had a constant supply of partying from Rodman. But Rodman was good at challenging the authority of the coaching staff, and when you've got two superstars in shaq and kobe with their own egos, you don't want a lesser player challenging the authority as well.

[Raidaz4Life]

I actually somehow remember this... (I was pretty young at the time), but Rodman consistently skipped practices and was going MIA without notifying the team which is why he was released. I was devastated when it happened because I loved Rodman.... I still love Rodman.

[-Kobe24-TJ19-]

LOL

Must be something in the water. Why you thinking about Rodman?

Not about Rodman.

I was checking lakers rosters before shaq and kobe era and during 3peat

[c.c.]

Who cares? How long ago was this?

This

[Sssmush]

That was really frustrating, because everybody wanted to see him play great ball and help the team, and he WAS playing great, but it was almost like he had grown bored with basketball, like it was no longer a challenge anymore.

as I recall, the Lakers were going through some coaching switches up to Del Harris (?) is that right? But anyway, Rodman started getting weird and taking off his shoes and sitting on the sideline during games, or riding his exercise bike next to the bench and wouldn't take orders from the coach or something, it was really a bummer because everybody wanted him to play and he just kind of WTF'd it. A lot of people were kind of disappointed but I think he thought the Lakers were just kind of bush league at that time and he wasn't really bothered with it.