For those of us old fogies who were teens in the 80's, we remember Dennis Rodman vividly. He played basketball with reckless abandon - hardly an offensive force, but when it came to rebounding, defense, diving for loose balls, and psychological warfare, he was as good as they come.

It has, at times, been quite difficult to determine whether D-Rod's antics, both on and off the court, helped or hurt his legacy. The distractions included things like the various eye-catching hair color changes, dating Modonna, promoting his book Bad as I Wanna Be by declaring himself bi-sexual, donning a wedding dress, and marrying himself, and a brief marriage to Carmen Electra.

Did these antics that called so much attention to him outside of basketball demean his talents as a player, and render them less relevant? Or were his accomplishments on the court so impressive that the sideshow was less relevant? Chicken vs. egg.

Well, the NBA has had its say: Rodman is in the Hall of Fame, and his induction speech was perhaps more shocking than anything Dennis did in his playing days.

I remember hints of the "real" Dennis, from a time before he became the "show," when he had been known to cry when discussing the important people in his life. But this speech, this was more than that. This was a man far removed from the bigger-than-life, egotistical, unhinged spectacle he made of himself for so long. Oh sure, he had a glittery name and number 10 on his suit coat and all, but the man who spoke at this ceremony had something Dennis almost never allowed us to see - perspective, humility, and remorse. Impressive stuff from someone who has always been defined as a "role player," albeit one of the greatest role players of all time. Wouldn't it have been nice if Jordan had behaved like that for his ceremony?

But this isn't about M.J., or about trying to make him humble. You could more easily rip a ham bone out of a pit bull's mouth than humble M.J. This is about Dennis Rodman, and about marveling at something OTHER than his appearance or his staged theatre. Sure, he's covered in earrings and nose rings, and wearing a pimped up outfit. You've seen that side of him before, and it is hardly shocking or over-the-top these days (thanks to pop-culture precedents that he himself has set). What makes this speech shocking is a man willing to stand in front of his peers and the press and say things like: "I wish I had been a better father" or looking down at his mother and saying things like "Me and my mother have never gotten along" and "She kicked me out" and "I resented her" and "my mother rarely ever hugged me or my siblings....she didn't know how" and yet still make everything he's saying sound like a remorseful, respectful tribute to her.

My attempts to reconstruct it don't do it justice, so just watch. It is enough to simply say: D-Rod, even today, can still shock us. Good job, man. You may not be the most talented public speaker, but nobody can doubt your heart.

Labels: Dennis Rodman, Hall of Fame, speech

Don King at a Heat game? This seems appropriate
Dennis Rodman is really good at three things:
1) Rebounding
2) Being crazy
3) Receiving oral sex while conducting a radio interview.

Yes, there is an mp3 clip of this interview. It is amazing. Dennis gets interrupted mid-sentence by a woman's voice and giggling, the interview gets absolutely derailed, and comedic gold is delivered. One highlight:

Rodman: "What are you doing? What are you doing? (pause) This girl is really active. (laughing and mumbling) Oh my Lord she’s going at it right now dude. Whatever, go ahead.”
Interviewer: (Brief awkward pause) (laughs) "Dennis, you're a trip right now."

The interviewer sums it up well later: "This is exactly what I expected this to be." Rodman responds very well: "Life is awesome."

In less awesome news, NBA players' association executive director Billy Hunter said Monday he is "99 percent sure" there will be a lockout next summer...


Worst of the Night in Pictures:

Holy shit, the reboot of "Twins" looks awesome(Caption via Czernobog)

Even when winning, Vinny Del Negro still reeks of failure

Oh, what did we ever do without Birdman in our lives?

Nice to see the Warriors back on their usual path

Nationally Televised Games:
Bulls at Lakers, NBA TV, 10:30pm: The Lakers are leading the NBA at 112.5 points per game. I was unaware the Bulls' circus trip involved stepping in a time machine to go play the Showtime Lakers...

All The Other Games:
Cavaliers at Pacers, 7pm: The Pacers have fallen into the zig-zag pattern of win-loss-win-loss, etc. They just upset the hell out of the Heat, so I look forward to seeing them drop a load in their collective pants and lose this game by 20 points.

Hawks at Nyets, 7pm: Six game winning streak, then losing 6 of the next 8. I don't pretend to understand this Atlanta Hawks team, and I don't really plan on figuring them out before the end of the year. Nobody cares about Atlanta anyway -- just look at the people who play NBA 2K11 and which teams they use!

76ers at Wizards Generals, 7pm: I'm just going to quote BadDave here: "Is this not the absolute best bawful season we've had since bawful hit the air? It's a veritable cornucopia of terrible ball." And just think! We're still only in November!

Bobcraps at Knicks, 7:30pm: This just further supports BadDave's argument.

Pistons at Mavericks, 8:30pm: One team is good at defense, and the other is not. Go ahead and guess which one has a better record. (waits for answer) How did you know???

Labels: Bawful After Dark, Dennis Rodman, Stan Van Gundy

By now, most people know about how American celebrities love to do silly commercials on Japanese television...with awesome results. Heck, I can't get through a day without saying "Vroom vroom, party starter!" and doing the robot. And although this Dunlop tire commercial starring Dennis Rodman (circa 1997) didn't make Cracked.com's list of the most ridiculous celebrity cameos in Japanese ads, it's still mildly to moderately amusing.


As an added bonus, here's a rather bizarre American commercial in which -- inexplicably -- Mike Ditka, Jim McMahon, William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Dennis Rodman argue over which one of them is the real...Diana Pearl? No, that's not a typo. After watching it, I'm going to have to name Rodman the winner. If any of them is Diana Pearl, it's definitely him.


Okay, okay. Last one, I swear. In this commercial, we discover that Dennis Rodman had MVP feet. Seriously.

Labels: celebrity cameos in Japanese commercials, Dennis Rodman, vroom vroom party starter