According to Dennis Rodman, prior to joining the Chicago Bulls ahead of the 1995-96 campaign, Phil Jackson asked him to apologize to Scottie Pippen as a personal favor.
Rodman was initially made furious by the suggestion he had done anything wrong to Pippen as a member of The Bad Boys in Detroit, but The Zen Master’s gambit worked.
An evening with Dennis Rodman: Old memories, returning to Chicago and life as a rockstar https://t.co/QOIhe8HYia
— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) April 5, 2018
The Worm recently looked back on his three wild championship seasons in Chicago with tremendous satisfaction.
Per The Athletic:
You guys really did help make them and make Michael [Jordan].
Rodman: “We didn’t know how to handle Chicago in 1991. Because it was so fast. Scottie got his game on. Horace [Grant] had his game on. And Michael always had his game on. But we didn’t know how to handle the scheme they were doing in 1991. So basically we were so frustrated the first two or three games, what’d we have left but to beat them up? And when that didn’t work we did the old okie doke. We didn’t want to shake your hands. Screw you.”
Do you regret that?
Rodman: “Well, not really.”
Did you think it would be hard to be a teammate with Scottie when you first came here?
Rodman: “I really didn’t look at that. I think the fact that me coming to Chicago was more surprising. I’m saying, ‘Chicago? How did Chicago get my rights from San Antonio?’ So the story came out that they traded me for Will Perdue. Will Perdue, guys. Come on, really? I mean, we got probably the greatest rebounder on the planet and I remember getting low-balled by Will Perdue. Once the trade was done, I went to Jerry Krause’s house with Michael, Scottie, Phil Jackson, his dog, everybody else. We’re at Jerry Krause’s house and we’re having dinner and stuff like that. And we basically didn’t talk to each other at all. It was like ‘The Triangle.’ Michael sat here, Scottie sat here, I sat over here, and Phil’s right in the middle. So we’re at the house and nobody’s talking to each other. So Phil comes over to me and says, ‘Hey, Dennis, can you do me a favor?’ I say, ‘What is that?’ He says, ‘Can you go over there and say you’re sorry to Scottie?’ I was, like, ‘What? Say what? I’m sorry to Scottie?’ Phil said, ‘You know, just go over there and soften him up a little bit, you know because of what happened in ’91. You pushed him in the stands.’ I said, ‘You fucking gotta be kidding me, right? This is a fucking game.’ He said, ‘Just do it for me.’ So I go up to Scottie and I say, ‘Hey man, I’m sorry about what happened.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, man. We just want to win.’ And that’s how the deal got done.”
