10B
Friday, May 3, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Rodman bores all in his new book
Basketball star wants to be nude after final game
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Dennis Rodman wants to leave the NBA the same way he greets and bids adieu to readers of his new autobiography.
In the buff.
"After my last game, I'll walk off the court and take off one piece of clothing with every step," Rodman said. "Then I'll be at about midcourt, and I'll walk the rest of the way into the locker room nude. Nobody's ever done that before, and it can be my parting shot to the NBA."
That's just one of the many revelations the Chicago Bulls' frenetic forward made public in Bad As I Wanna Be, which hit bookstores Wednesday.
On the front cover, striking a backward pose on a Harley, Rodman is stark naked save for a strategically placed basketball. The back cover displays a full-body shot from the backside — also unclothed.
And in the profanity-laced pages within, Rodman really bares all — about basketball, sex, race relations, grooming habits and ex-girlfriend Madonna.
Dennis Rodman
NBA commissioner David Stern said he hasn't read Rodman's book, which includes a few jabs at him. But before the Bulls beat
Miami on Wednesday to advance to the second round of the playoffs, Stern laughed and said, "I understand he wants to play naked? In his last game? It probably would be."
Rodman said Stern is afraid of him and wants every NBA player to emulate squeaky-clean players like Detroit's Grant Hill.
Stern said fear wasn't a factor but admitted that Rodman is not what we (the NBA) set out to be.
He might one day reuite with Madonna, who begged him to get her pregnant.
Rodman, the league's five-time rebounding champion also said:
"In the end, (the relationship) didn't work because I didn't want to be known as Madonna's boy toy. But there were so many strong feelings there; it could happen where we get back together. If I wanted Madonna right now ... she would respond."
Blacks obviously are superior basketball players.
"The whole thing is simple: A black player knows he can go out on the court and kick a white player's butt."
He changes his hair color, paints his nails, wears tattoos, pierces body parts and occasionally cross-dresses because that's normal for him.
"I like bringing out the feminine side of Dennis Rodman."
He's happy he didn't commit suicide when he contemplated doing so in 1993, but probably will someday.
"I'll know when my life is complete. Then I'll take out a gun and shoot myself in the head. That's how it will end."
Now-teammate but then-opponent Scottie Pippen had "Rodman on the brain" during the 1991 playoffs.
"I think he got a little freaked out by me. All of a sudden, he came down with a migraine headache."
Magic Johnson having the AIDS virus hasn't changed the sexual habits of NBA players.
"For the first couple of weeks, I think it made a difference. But then it died down, and it's back to the way it was."
Rodman, who wrote the book with Tim Keown, took shots at several
fellow players but said little about celebrated teammate Michael Jordan. Most of his venom was spewed on the San Antonio Spurs, who traded him to Chicago after blaming him for 1994 and 1995 playoff collapses.
He ripped general manager Gregg Popovich, coach Bob Hill, forwards Sean Elliott and Chuck Person and, especially, MVP center David Robinson.
"They might as well have put 'BIG DISTRACTION' above my locker in San Antonio. You can blame me ... but they might be more of a basketball team if David Robinson didn't freeze up every time they play a big game. I got sold out by the players, the coaches, the management."
Mostly, Rodman spent passage after passage railing about being nothing more than a sports slave at $2.5 million a year. He said he deserved to be one of the league's highest-paid players.
Though he loathes hypocrites, he said, "If a team made a commitment to me, I think I might be willing to play by the rules. I've come to the point in my career where I could be a good little boy, at the right price. Give me $15 million for two years, and you can use me."
Bad As I Wanna Be, published by Delacorte Press, is listed at $22.95.
Knicks sweep Cavs will face Bulls next
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — If the New York Knicks needed things put in perspective, all they had to do was check out Dennis Rodman's opinion of their three-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"We could beat the Cavaliers with our eyes closed. You can't play the way Cleveland plays in the NBA. They're playing high school ball. Beating them is no accomplishment," Rodman said.
The Knicks may have impressed themselves and their fans with their victory Wednesday night against a Cleveland team that gave them problems in the regular season, but the Bulls certainly don't seem worried.
New York will open its second round series at the United Center on Sunday against a Bulls team that had an even easier time in the first round as they swept the Miami Heat 3-0.
This will be the sixth time in the last eight years that the Knicks and Bulls have faced each other in the playoffs, and New York will be fighting history. Their only post-season victory against Chicago in that span was in 1994, Michael Jordan's first retirement year.
"You're looking at two teams that really don't like each other and have a lot of history behind them," Hubert Davis said after the Knicks finished off the Cavs with an 81-76 victory.
In the three-game series against the Cavs, the Knicks answered a few questions about themselves while still showing a weak spot or two.
As a team, their veteran character is intact. After a roller coaster regular season that included the firing of Don Nelson and 15 losses at home, New York showed it can focus itself when the games really start to mean something.
John Starks, who made 14 three-pointers in the three games, still plays better when he's fired up. Starks was five of seven on three-pointers in Game 3, but he had trouble defending bigger guards Bobby Phills and Dan Majerle in one-on-one situations. His next defensive assignment will be Michael Jordan.
Patrick Ewing can still get his 20 points and 10 rebounds, but he went just six of 14 at the free throw line in Game 3.