World Awaits Bull’s Return

It’s surely only a matter of time before the theologians and philosophers confirm what anyone who has read a newspaper or magazine, watched a television or undergone body piercing already suspects: that Dennis Rodman must be some sort of ominous portent--a multicolor-coifed, tattoo-riddled, cross-dressing pitchman for the onrushing millennium.

An erstwhile forward for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, Rodman has wormed his way into every crevice of society via basketball, product endorsement and a talk show on that bastion of rock-and-roll decadence, MTV. Not content with conquering those arenas, however, Rodman has moved into religion and politics as well. At the Super Bowl, Green Bay Packers star Reggie White, an ordained Baptist minister, invoked Rodman’s name during a news conference, and recently the Rev. Jesse Jackson also weighed in with his thoughts on Rodman while offering his counsel.

Of course, the most urgent sign of Rodman’s import occurred last week, when President Clinton took time out from his busy schedule to opine that Rodman, currently serving an 11-game suspension for kicking a television cameraman in the groin during a Jan. 15 game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, should stop and think of all the people watching him. Clinton added it would send “a who-knows-what” signal.

“The culture probably has a line that can’t be crossed but it may be further out than he’s reached and as long as people keep asking for what he provides he’ll keep making it up,” said Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist who regularly works with professional golfers. “Call it manipulation, call it street smarts, but Dennis Rodman has learned how to make money and make the system work for him ...If you’re a clean-cut, hard-working rebounder, how much attention do you get?”

At one time, being the NBA’s best rebounder and defensive player was enough for the 35-year-old Rodman. Then the Clairol began to flow and the body etching began. As a member of the Detroit Pistons, Rodman played for a coach he loved (Chuck Daly) and subjugated himself behind forceful personalities, such as Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer, becoming part of championship teams in 1989 and ’90. However, when Daly left before the 1992-93 season, Rodman began his erratic behavior.

“Chuck would tell us to leave him alone, that you don’t try to put a saddle on a mustang,” said Knicks assistant Brendan Malone, who worked with Daly in Detroit. “You have to put up with the guy because he helps you win championships but you have to try to pull in the reins ... I always thought that he’d be perfect with (Bulls Coach) Phil Jackson, but he’s crossed over the line.”

Jackson, a Zen adherent, admits to being mystified by Rodman’s behavior.

“Dennis does everything we ask of him in terms of practices and team functions; things only happen when there are television cameras around and 20,000 people in the stands,” Jackson said, adding that Rodman is “right at the limit and the edge of staying in the league. If that’s not ample warning to him ... I don’t know what can be.”

Since December 1993, Rodman has been suspended for 21 games (depending on the ultimate length of his current suspension) and fined approximately $95,000 by the NBA. That doesn’t count the suspensions meted out by the Pistons, San Antonio Spurs (for whom Rodman played between 1993 and 1995) and Bulls.

Chicago management suspended him for two games earlier this season after an expletive-laced harangue that aired live on Chicago television. His current setback drew a league-maximum $25,000 fine (along with a $200,000 payment to the cameraman to avoid any legal action), but because of clauses in his contract that penalize him for missing games due to detrimental conduct, Rodman will, according to an NBA source, lose close to $2 million more.

Such is the cost of being less a basketball player than entertainer, a distinction that Rodman has made repeatedly, and one that has paid off handsomely for him. Although his latest suspension cost him an ongoing spot with Carl’s Jr., a West Coast hamburger chain, Rodman has contracts with McDonald’s, the milk industry, Victoria’s Secret lingerie and Oakley sunglasses. Last week Rodman also signed a contract with Converse, which plans to sell a Rodman-model basketball shoe.

Most of these deals have been brokered by the Rodman Group, a Southern California-based office headed by the player’s agent, Dwight Manley. Manley, a former coin collector who hadn’t represented an athlete until he met Rodman, became Rodman’s representative shortly after the two met playing craps in Las Vegas.

Before he can return to the court, according to NBA Commissioner David Stern, Rodman must undergo counseling to help ensure there are no repeat performances. Rodman met with Stern Friday in a session the commissioner called “constructive” but no decision was reached regarding when or if Rodman will be reinstated.

“It’s not fair that Dennis has to predict the future when no one else has to do it,” Manley told the New York Daily News.

In a recent interview on ABC’s “Primetime Live,” Rodman said Stern shouldn’t “treat me like a kid. I’m not a kid and you’re not my father.”

“I don’t need help. If they want me to see a counselor, I’ll see him. We’ll play cards ... What can I tell him? There’s nothing I can tell the guy. What? I need help? I’m a sick individual? Oh, God! That’s what I’m going to tell him? I’d be lying.”

The National Basketball Players Association, the union for NBA players, has filed a grievance on Rodman’s behalf. Stern says he believes that if the league can discipline players cumulatively for repeated flagrant fouls, it can do so for cumulative digressions.

“I don’t think it’s in our job description to control player attitudes or their lifestyles away from the court in terms of how they dress themselves or the personas they adopt -- we try very hard to say that’s their business,” Stern said. “Our primary focus is the game -- particularly as it relates to players-on-players or the responsibility for player safety or the physical safety of fans, media, referees-everyone in the game situation ... we have to react to what goes on in our gyms.”