Dennis Rodman is “the devil” they don’t want to know.
The five-time NBA champion told GQ that NBA front offices and younger players have not sought his expertise since he retired from the league in 2000.
“It’s all about the analytics now,” Rodman said in the interview published Thursday. “It’s like you got to shoot here because analytics means you have to angle the ball, and the ball’s going to shoot like this…. I’ve been doing that s–t for f–king years.”
Rodman explained that he had to “focus, focus, focus” early on in his career in order to play defense against “legendary guys,” the league’s biggest stars at the time, “Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, [and] James Worthy.”
“I worked on defense every day for, like, a couple of years, man. And all of a sudden, I perfected it to the point where I knew how players were going to react to something [before they did].”
Rodman, who’s considered one of the all-time greatest rebounders, won three rings with the Bulls alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
“You got the greatest basketball player on the planet, the second greatest in Scottie Pippen, and then you got the devil,” Rodman said.
It could be Rodman’s outlandish persona that keeps NBA teams and players away. During his playing days, he was known for his partying lifestyle, missing practices and frequent suspensions. He told GQ that it led to Spurs front-court running mate David Robinson once asking him on a team plane, “Why you got to be the devil all the time?”
Despite all that, Rodman remained a force on the court and a perfect complement to the abilities of Jordan and Pippen. And although his phone isn’t ringing with requests from the league or its players, Rodman said he is in a good place.
“I got my life in control right now. Everything is going in the right direction,” Rodman told the magazine.