DJ Rodman, son of former Chicago Bulls legend Dennis Rodman, found out about his father’s Vegas conquest at the same time millions of other people found out about it.
Over the weekend, we saw what happened during the short-lived “vacation” he took during the 1997-98 season, as seen on “The Last Dance.” Episode 3 of the 10-part docuseries showed how Rodman asked head coach Phil Jackson for a vacation, something Michael Jordan thought was a terrible idea. Phil reluctantly gave him 48 hours to do what he needed to do and to get back to the team.
This revelation shocked DJ upon watching the series:
“Only thing I didn’t know was that vacation … I didn’t know you could do that,” said DJ during an Instagram Live conversation. “I didn’t know you could go up to your coach be like, ‘I need a vacation.’”
Players don’t have the liberty of taking an in-season vacation, but the Bulls were well aware that if they gave Rodman enough rope that he would continue to perform at a high level that they needed. As expected, Rodman didn’t return to the team on time, which had Jordan going to Vegas to retrieve him.
Jackson wanted to get him back in shape as soon as possible so he made the entire team do sprints to make that happen. Rodman, somehow, out-did everybody and continued to perform at a high level on the court.
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Don’t look for any head coach to ever let a player do something like that again, especially in the social media age.
