Los Angeles Lakers: Little known facts about Dennis Rodman!
By Ronald Agers
The world basically found out about Rodman’s relationship with Madonna in Los Angeles.
No, the Lakers were not on the radar for this romantic episode (Oh, it’s coming!). This one belonged to the Los Angeles Clippers.
On April 24, 1994, David Robinson and Shaquille O’Neal were running neck and neck for the NBA scoring title. Going into the final game against the Clippers, Robinson was behind Shaq by an average of .06 points and needed to score a ton to take the crown from The Diesel.
To quote a rap lyric from Whodini’s rap song “Friends”, “It was done so sweet, it had to be a plan”!
Spurs coach, John Lucas showed no shame in his game as he told the team to feed Robinson all game long. By the time the game ended, Robinson scored 71 points against the hapless (This is your Grandfather’s) Los Angeles Clippers.
In this game, Robinson blew past his previous career-high (52 points), the Spurs’ team record set by George Gervin (63 points) and Shaq to win the scoring title. Robinson joined Gervin as the only players in Spurs history to claim an NBA scoring title.
Wanna know why it’s easy to forget? Well, Madonna was at the game sitting by the Spurs bench. It was then the short-termed relationship between Madonna and Dennis Rodman became public knowledge.
It was at this time when Dennis Rodman became a marketing machine with the wedding dress, the book deal, wrestling and movies. He became more than a basketball player after this game. Dennis Rodman became a rock star.
To put this perspective, David Robinson ranks tied for eighth all-time with Elgin Baylor in highest-scoring games in NBA history. He is only one of only six NBA players to go over the 70 point mark in history. Despite all of that, after the 30 for 30 documentary, most will remember this as the game Madonna came out to see Dennis Rodman play.
By the way, Rodman was second on the team in scoring that night with eight points. He also grabbed 17 rebounds, had three assists, a block and a steal. The next season, Rodman had REALLY worn out his welcome and was traded to the Bulls for a package that featured Will Perdue.