23 games, a ten-game winning streak, a Vegas trip and a marriage to Carmen Electra!
If Lakers fans tell you that LeBron James‘ first season was the most drama-filled, they are not life long Lakers fans.
During the lockout season back in 98-99, the Lakers had a season’s worth of chaos with no Phil Jackson to provide the championship zen needed to get the team over the top. The Lakers convinced him to come out of retirement the next year. With that in mind, it might have been bad timing to bring in Dennis Rodman.
After the Bulls released Rodman in January of 1999, the Lakers signed him for the pro-rated salary for the rest of the season.
Now keep up because this will go kinda fast. Dennis Rodman reportedly held the Lakers up for three weeks before signing his contract. That exercise irritated Magic Johnson, who owned a piece of the Lakers at the time. But before that happened, the team’s chaos was already in effect.
Del Harris was fired 12 games into the season at the airport after losing to the Vancouver Grizzlies. He was replaced by Kurt Rambis (writer’s note: Considering the dynamics of the Lakers front office today, makes you wonder how Rambis stays relevant!). Kobe Bryant was inserted into the starting lineup and started irritating Shaquille O’Neal.
Maybe the media has a point when reports about Kobe Bryant comments about Shaq surface. Their feud is almost legendary. But if the feud can drive Dennis Rodman crazy, one would think that the bickering was not overblown. CBS Sports‘ James Herbert highlights Rodman’s frustrations.
"“So I start playing, right, we won 10 games in a row,” Rodman said. “Ten games in a row when I got there, right? I said, ‘Jerry, I gotta take a break.’ One reason: Shaq and Kobe. I couldn’t deal with those [expletives]. I’m not going to lie to you: I couldn’t deal with them. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not used to this,’ right? I’m used to winning, but I can’t deal with these [expletives expletive-ing] every [expletive] game. Like, [expletive]. I mean, every, I’m like, [expletive], we’re winning, what? So I go and I say … ‘I’m so used to having calm and serenity and stuff like that.’”"
The rest of the story gets foggy. It was rumored that the late, great Dr. Jerry Buss, took Rodman to Las Vegas to gamble. When the dust settled, Rodman left the team for two weeks spanning about four games. He was paid during his absence but was fined $100 dollars a day.
One more final bit of craziness before the Lakers released him. On March 10, 1999, Dennis Rodman got tossed from a game against the Clippers from the Lakers bench. After the game, the Lakers traded Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell to the Charlotte Hornets for Glen Rice and J.R. Reid.
Oh, by the way, he was married to Carmen Electra for like five minutes. It was annulled almost immediately. I guess it was a time that the Worm wanted to forget. He did forget her government name in one interview.
One last ride with the Dallas Mavericks effectively ended Rodman’s career. The Mavericks were in a youth movement and Dennis was caught at times sitting down on the job.
Now Dennis Rodman is more in demand about his insight with Kim Jung Un and North Korea than his NBA exploits these days. Hopefully, he can help.
Well, that’s it. Little known facts about Dennis Rodman and his connections to the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s not ESPN’s 30 for 30, but hopefully, you enjoyed Lake Show Life’s own look into Dennis Rodman.