Rodman's antics not a kick

Jeff McAlpine	On-line Forty-Niner
March 6, 1997

Back in the glory days of the Detroit Pistons, Dennis Rodman, the basketball player, was probably one of the most exciting players in the league. He played with emotion and enthusiasm. You could tell he was thankful to just have a shot and he was willing to make the most of it. He was truly one of the most interesting players to watch on the court.

Well, he's definitely still interesting. You have to give it up for the hustle and talent that Rodman brings to the game. But I think the off-court novelty as well as the abuse of innocent people in the path of Dennis Rodman is about to run its course, if it hasn't already.

Out-of-control is probably the best way to describe the new Dennis Rodman, and it is not the kind that is amusing and deserving of admiration. It is the kind of out-of-control that is hindering the Chicago Bulls as a business and as a basketball team. It is the kind of out-of-control that is causing personal injury to other people.

First it was a cameraman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He happened to be on the side-line, doing his job, and Dennis Rodman's foot happened to kick him in the groin. OK, so this was just one incident and Rodman did get slapped with a heavy fine and an 11-game suspension. The cameraman also received a lofty $200,000 out-of-court-settlement.

Rodman returns from his suspension and in less than one month's time, speak of the devil, his hand happens to slap another groin. This time the groin of Milwaukee's Joe Wolf. What's really going on here?

While Rodman, the non-basketball player, makes himself a media icon with his off-court antics, fans as well as the NBA are starting to realize that the one thing that makes him popular, his basketball talent, really isn't that big of a deal when it compares to innocent people getting hurt by him.

Rodman, it seems, has no appreciation of what it took to get him to his now fading stature and he is about to find out the hard way. NBA Commissioner David Stern has had enough of Rodman, and is one temper-tantrum away from banning Rodman for life from the NBA.

Without hoops, will anyone care if Rodman dresses in drag, dyes his hair, marries himself, or has his own show on MTV? It's doubtful. How about this solution? How about the NBA letting Joe Wolf kick Rodman where the sun does not shine a couple of times so he can see how it feels. Better yet, let everybody that Rodman's screwed over, including the fans that rarely get to see him play these days, kick him in the groin while Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen hold him down. Then we can take away his TV show, kick him out of the league, and let him see how it feels to be not-spoiled.

Don't get me wrong. Rodman is probably one of the best pure basketball players in the league when it comes to the aspects of the game involving hustle, mainly defense and rebounding. It's just that at this point, does anybody really care anymore? Rodman makes it clear in his book that he doesn't care what people think of him. Maybe it's time that we don't.

- Jeff McAlpine is sports editor of the Daily Forty-Niner