After Rodman became a three-time NAIA All-American during his collegiate basketball career, he made himself eligible for the 1986 NBA draft. That same year, he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons.
During his twenty-year basketball career, he played for many teams including the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Dallas Mavericks. But, Rodman is most known for his stint with the Chicago Bulls, where he played alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. With the Bulls, he won three NBA championships and solidified his legacy as a defensive master.
Dennis Rodman quotes about basketball
1. “Basketball is simple. It’s a simple game. But when you leave this confined zone, it’s hard.” – Dennis Rodman
2. “I can’t begin to describe the amount of crap I’ve taken for being a lousy free-throw shooter.” – Dennis Rodman
3. “I’d just sit there and react, react. I just practiced a lot about the angle of the ball and the trajectory of it.” – Dennis Rodman
4. “I don’t fit into the mold of the NBA man, and I think I’ve been punished financially for it.” – Dennis Rodman
5. “I spent money, I slept with women around the league, but I always kept my mind on the game.” – Dennis Rodman
6. “I’m hungrier than those other guys out there. Every rebound is a personal challenge.” – Dennis Rodman
7. “The NBA believes if you play for a team and get paid by a team, you’re the property of that team for 24 hours a day.” – Dennis Rodman
8. “Wherever there’s money, there’s drugs, so to say drugs don’t exist in the NBA would be stupid.” – Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman quotes about being a professional athlete
9. “I think marriage and athletes is a bad combination.” – Dennis Rodman
10. “The doors fly open when you’re a professional athlete.” – Dennis Rodman
11. “There is so much hypocrisy in sports.” – Dennis Rodman
12. “I’m starting to see players copy what I do. I’m flattered.” – Dennis Rodman
13. “They didn’t have a problem with me being wild and crazy when it came time to fill the arenas.” – Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman quotes about other basketball players
14. “You got the great Michael Jordan, the great Scottie Pippen, the great Phil Jackson. But if you take me away from this team, do they still win a championship? I don’t think so. I love Michael Jordan to death. I love Scottie Pippen, all these guys. But they really don’t do the things that I do.” -Dennis Rodman
15. “I want to do for rebounds what Michael Jordan did for dunks.” – Dennis Rodman
16. “I’ve got to give Larry Bird his due; he was a great player. He knew the game and he was smart.” – Dennis Rodman
17. “Karl Malone’s too high-class for a bum like me.” – Dennis Rodman
18. “The people at the top of the league think they need to rein me in so I don’t become another Michael Jordan, somebody they aren’t able to mold and shape and make their puppet.” – Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman quotes about life
19. “I wanna go out there and get my nose broke. I wanna go out there and get cut. Something that’s just going to bring out the hurt. The pain. I want to feel that.” – Dennis Rodman
20. “Like I said, I ain’t gotta prove anything to the people in this country. This business can kiss my ass.” – Dennis Rodman
21. “I don’t trust what this life has given me.” – Dennis Rodman
22. “I lost $35,000 in less than a week at the Mirage in Las Vegas.” – Dennis Rodman
23. “Everybody’s talking trash these days, so why not keep quiet?” – Dennis Rodman
24. “I could have been a bomb. I could have been in jail. I could have been dead. But I worked my ass off to get here.” – Dennis Rodman
25. “You can love me or you can hate me.” – Dennis Rodman
26. “If you have a problem with my answer that’s your problem, not my problem.” – Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman quotes about his public image
27. “I’ll be the judge of my own manliness. – Dennis Rodman
28. “If I want to wear a dress, I’ll wear a dress.” – Dennis Rodman
29. “To hang out in a gay bar or put on a sequined halter top makes me feel like a total person.” – Dennis Rodman
30. “There’s one thing everyone should understand: I like my character.” – Dennis Rodman
31. “This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is.” – Dennis Rodman
I go out with white women. This makes a lot of people unhappy, mostly black women.
I go out there and get my eyes gouged, my nose busted, my body slammed. I love the pain of the game.
I felt like calling attention to AIDS. I had the AIDS ribbon colored into my hair during the playoffs in ’95.
I don’t want to be bulky and stiff.
I don’t trust what this life has given me.
I don’t fit into the mold of the NBA man, and I think I’ve been punished financially for it.
I don’t feel anything when I watch Shaquille O’Neal play. I don’t feel anything coming off him.
I didn’t want to be known as Madonna’s playboy, her boy toy.
I couldn’t care less if the guy I’m guarding has HIV. I’m going to slam him anyway.
I can score 20 points if I want to, but that’s not my desire.
He wants Obama to do one thing, call him … He said, if you can, Dennis, I don’t want to do war. I don’t want to do war. He said that to me.
He loves power. He loves control because others, you know, dad and stuff like that, but he’s just a great guy. He’s just a great guy.
He loves basketball. And I said Obama loves basketball. Let’s start there, all right. Start there.
For years the league has thought I’ve been on drugs. I would have burned out a long time ago if that was true.
For five years I’ve felt like the best prostitute in a high-class whorehouse. But all the other girls get paid more than I do.
Fifty percent of life in the NBA is sex. The other 50 percent is money.
Everybody’s talking trash these days, so why not keep quiet?
Don’t let what other people think decide who you are.
Death has always had a prominent place in my mind. There are times when I think somebody might kill me.
Create havoc, create destruction.
Chemistry is a class you take in high school or college, where you figure out two plus two is 10, or something.
Black culture is something I don’t relate to much at all.
At least 50 times. I’ve jumped off a building, jumped off a cliff in a car. I’ve been in bedrooms when women came in with knives and guns.
As long as I play ball, I can get any woman I want.
Dennis Rodman Quotes
1. “I want to do for rebounds what Michael Jordan did for dunks.”
2. “Don’t let what other people think decide who you are.”
3. “You can love me or you can hate me.”
4. “If I die young, everybody’s going to say they saw it coming.”
5. “I have one regret, I wish I was a better father.”
6. “I go out with white women. This…”
7. “There is so much hypocrisy in sports.”
8. “If you have a problem with my answer that’s your problem, not my problem.”
9. “Music soothes my savage beast. I got a beast in me running wild.”
10. “I can score 20 points if I want to, but that’s not my desire.”
11. “This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is.”
12. “I don’t trust what this life has given me.”
13. “Chemistry is a class you take in high school or college, where you figure out two plus two is 10, or something.”
14. “I’m hungrier than those other guys out there. Every rebound is a personal challenge.”
15. “I’m just saying I’m being myself, and people understand that.”
16. “I lost $35,000 in less than a week at the Mirage in Las Vegas.”
17. “I like to describe my life as a black hole with a little light out there.”
18. “I couldn’t care less if the guy I’m guarding has HIV. I’m going to slam him anyway.”
19. “I go out there and get my eyes gouged, my nose busted, my body slammed. I love the pain of the game.”
20. “Create havoc, create destruction.”
21. “The life I was leading was changing me into someone I didn’t even know.”
22. “Maybe my life isn’t great. We don’t have all the answers. Look at it from my side.”
23. “For five years I’ve felt like the best prostitute in a high-class whorehouse. But all the other girls get paid more than I do.”
24. “My last year with the Spurs, I was late to practice one time.”
25. “I want to be anywhere in the world that I’m needed. I want to spread a message of peace and love throughout the world.”
