Rodman, Dennis (1961—)

Dennis "The Worm" Rodman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, but grew up in Dallas's infamous Oak Cliff housing projects. A gangly small child, Rodman lived in the shadows of his two extremely tall older sisters, both of whom were adept with a basketball. In his autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be, he describes feeling invisible and clumsy growing up. Everything changed in his late teens, however, when he grew by more than a foot. In his autobiography he announces, "It was like I had a new body that knew how to do all this shit the old one didn't." At age twenty-one Rodman's new body allowed him to transform himself from a nobody who stole wristwatches and worked the janitorial night shift at the local airport into a somebody who played basketball. After a junior college recruited Rodman to play in the late 1970s, he won a basketball scholarship to Southeastern Oklahoma University in 1983. By his mid-twenties he had made it into the NBA, first drafted by the Detroit Pistons (1986-1992), then later traded into the San Antonio Spurs (1993-1995). Finally, with a reputation as the league's best rebounder (he won Defensive Player of the Year in the 1990-91 season) Rodman realized his ultimate dream: he was acquired by the Chicago Bulls in 1995 and became a World Champion again.

Although Rodman got off to a late start, he has risen to become one of the NBA's top players, earning more than $26 million in NBA salary and corporate endorsements a year. Rodman has also made himself an eccentric celebrity. He makes news headlines with stories of that cover his latest hot-tempered antics on the court (such as head-butting referees), his unlikely romances (including a date with Madonna and his impromptu Las Vegas marriage to actress Carmen Electra), his off-the-court cross-dressing style, and his ever changing hair color. Rodman is willing to try it all. He has penned two autobiographies (Bad as I Wanna Be has sold more than 800,000 copies) and has tried his hand at acting, co-starring with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 1997 film Double Team.

—Frederick Luis Aldama

Further Reading:

Bickley, Dan. No Bull: The Unauthorized Biography of Dennis Rodman. New York, St. Martins Press, 1997.

Rodman, B. Anicka. Worse than He Says He Is: White Girls Don't Bounce. New York, Dove Books, 1997.

Rodman, Dennis, and Tim Keown. Bad as I Wanna Be. New York, Delacorte Press, 1996.

Rodman, Dennis, and Michael Silver. Walk on the Wild Side. New York, Delacorte Press, 1997.