This post is part of a media project called SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number, and consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.
The obvious choices for No. 73:
Dennis Rodman: Los Angeles Lakers
Ron Yary: Los Angeles Rams
The not-so obvious choices for No. 73:
Charlie Cowan: Los Angeles Rams
Tyler Toffoli: Los Angeles Kings
George Stanich: UCLA basketball
The most interesting story for No. 73:
Dennis Rodman: Los Angeles Lakers forward (1999), Long Beach Jam forward (2003-24)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Newport Beach; Long Beach; Inglewood (Forum)
Reference books on the subject:
“Bad as I Wanna Be,” by Dennis Rodman with Tim Keown, 1996
“Walk on the Wild Side,” by Dennis Rodman with Michael Silver, 1997
“I Should Be Dead By Now,” by Dennis Rodman with Jack Isenhour, 2005
Where else but Southern California could Dennis Rodman express his true self?
In the spring of 1999, with the NBA was trying to cram in a 50-game regular-season schedule after having missed the first three months because of a lockout, was it really Rodman to the rescue for the Los Angeles Lakers? Or was Los Angeles attempting to rescue Rodman from becoming obsolete?
The 23 games that the 6-foot-7, 210-pounder pounded the boards for the Lakers between February 23 and April 15 felt much longer. Dennis “The Menace” Rodman became available after the Chicago Bulls released him a month earlier, and he showed up the day after Lakers general manager Jerry West fired Del Harris as the head coach and dropped in Bill Bertka as the temporary sub — a perfect amount of turmoil already boiling for his arrival.
By the time Tax Day ’99 arrived, Rodman had taxed everyone’s patience. Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke bellowed that the Lakers they had to cut him loose “before he returns from spring break,” which came amidst an excused absence for his mental health.
The whole experience garnered cover story in Sports Illustrated. The freak show was too tough to ignore, as was the daily guessing games about what his hair would look like — a new shade of yellow sprinkled with black dots to accentuate a new tattoo or piercings?
For Dennis “The Menace,” Rodman, this was the latest episode in a reality show that could have been called “As The Worm Turns.” L.A. got to see the real Rodzilla. Aka Demolition Man. Aka El Loco.
Aka Psycho.
In a season already weird in that the Lakers were playing their final games at the Forum in Inglewood before moving to DTLA, wrapping up business with second-year player Kobe Bryant trying to get on the same page with Shaquille O’Neal in his third Lakers season, change kept happening on the fly.
The soon-to-be 38 and living in Newport Beach was personally invited to join the Lakers by owner Jerry Buss. He knew showmanship and something could attract attention after the rare player/owner standoff was giving the sport lemons.
“I think a lot of people would forgive him as long as he tried to act somewhat orderly,” said Buss. “Dennis is Dennis. We’re not about to tell Dennis how to be someone else. We’d take him the way he is.”
Amidst all this, Rodman’s agent, Steve Chasman, was trying to work a movie deal with Fox, a studio that also had an option to buy into the Lakers as a 10-percent partner with Buss’ approval. Dealing with the devil requires caution.
Three years earlier, Rodman was on the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time list based on the league’s half-century anniversary, recognizing for his contributions to five championship teams (three in Chicago, two in Detroit), winning seven rebound titles in a row and playing in two All Star games.
By 1996, Rodman had already pulled on a white wedding dress at an appearance for a New York book store to promote his autobiography, “Bad As I Wanna Be.“
“He doesn’t merely come with baggage,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Mark Heisler, “but an entire train of it.”
Suspended six times in the previous seven seasons, either by the league or his team. The league sat him down three games once for head-butting a referee. Blowing off a practice during the NBA Finals without permission to wrestle in a WWE event.
Al Seib, AP
His signing gave the L.A. Times permission to to use the headline “Lakers Going Hollyweird.” He called his own press conference at Planet Hollywood to let everyone know about it, then began sobbing behind a pair of sun glasses when he felt he had been badgered with too many questions about his previous selfish behavior that drew out negotiations for his return.
Rodman had asked to wear No. 69, but the team rejected it. In fact, no NBA player has ever worn No. 69. The closest Rodman came was having card No. 69 in the 1998-’99 Bowman basketball card set.
Having worn No. 10 in Detroit and San Antonio and No. 91 with Chicago, Rodman said he settled on No. 73 because seven represented the number of rebound titles he had won, and three was for the number of NBA title teams he played on. Add it together, a perfect 10 again.
With Rodman on the roster, the Lakers did in fact win 11 in a row between February and March, which also happened to be when they named Kurt Rambis as the head babysitter. Then the team went 6-6.
Rodman was averaging 11.2 rebounds, 28.6 minutes and at least a half-dozen headaches a game for all around him. An early April game when the Lakers beat Denver and Rodman grabbed 17 rebounds came two nights after he was ejected from a Lakers loss after picking up two technical fouls.
Carl’s Jr. began airing commercials starring Rodman that week. Converse canceled a multi-million-dollar endorsement contract.
At one juncture, Rodman took a “leave of absence for personal reasons” and missed eight days. He had just split with his wife of six months, actress Carmen Electra, for the second time.
During a 37-point loss at Portland, Rodman wouldn’t go back into a game, sitting out the second half with what he said was a sore elbow. The next day, he shown up late for practice and couldn’t find his shoes or socks.
Rambis just told him to go home. That was it.
”At this time we feel it’s in the best interests of the Lakers to end the relationship,” West said in a statement. ”This obviously didn’t work out like we had hoped, but we would like to thank Dennis for the contributions he did make to the team and wish him the best of luck in the future.”
The team limped into the Western Conference finals, were swept by San Antonio, and bailed out of Inglewood.
Rodman connected with collectors who got themselves a jersey suitable for framing. Even if Rodman felt he was the one being framed.
The aftermath
In January of 2004, I was dispatched to the Long Beach City College gym with the explicit orders to find Dennis Rodman. He was 43 at the time and said to be making (another) comeback, this time with the Long Beach Jam of the re-constituted American Basketball Association.
We needed proof.
Stephen Carr, AP
Rodman was said to be already fitted in a No. 91 jersey, but he wasn’t participating in drills that day, the team said, because he had a large silver ring stuck through the middle of his lower lip and “he didn’t have the instrument that he needed to get it off,” according to Jam president Steve Chase.
We watched Rodman jog through some set offensive plays with teammates, minus any defenders. So he didn’t want to chance an injury, the team said.
Not when you’re promising him $850 a week.
Rodman told me he been was sober since October after he crashed a motorcycle doing stunts outside a Las Vegas strip club and tore up a knee. He said he was now a devoted husband and a loving father as he was appearing in an ABC reality show called “Celebrity Mole: Yucatan” – where he eventually was declared the winner.
“My record speaks for itself,”’ Rodman said when a crush of media types joined in and nearly pinned him to a wall and asked why anyone shouldn’t be skeptical about this latest cry for attention.
“There’s nothing to be skeptical about because it’s not like we’re throwing $20 million at him to play for us,” said Jam coach Earl Cureton, a former Los Angeles Clippers center who once played in Detroit with Rodman.
The grand plan was to get Rodman back in the NBA. Playing with the Jam included a scheduled two games in Las Vegas.
“That’ll be a test for his sobriety,”’ Chase admitted.
Michelle Rodman, officially married to him since May, remained optimistic.
“He’s made a complete turnaround,”’ she said. “You don’t know the hell I used to go through with him. Now, I wouldn’t give this guy up for anything.”
For what it was worth, Rodman helped provide the Jam with a title in the seven-team ABA.
A couple months later, Rodman sold his two-story house on the Balboa Peninsula for $3.7 million, in part so he could separate himself from the crazy O.C. beach party scene. He still thought he could play in the NBA and three teams were still interested. He went to the ABA’s Tijuana Dragons and Orange County Crush/Buzz (2004-05). He also participated in games for Finland’s professional league and three games for the Brighton Bears of the British Basketball League.
He faded to black. Or yellowish. Or something less colorful.
The legacy
For his body of work from a 14-year NBA career, Rodman, who hardly played organized basketball before going to North Central Texas College and Southeastern Oklahoma State University, somehow was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
It was the second-best thing that happened to him that year, having just celebrated his 50th birthday against most odds.
In 2014, Rodman was seen cozing up to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at a basketball game in Pyongyang and that became … nuclear. In February 2017, Rodman was sentenced to three years of probation for misdemeanor charges stemming from going the wrong way onto the I-5 freeway in Santa Ana and, authorities said, prompting a crash.
In 2009, he first endeared himself to Donald Trump as a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice.” Enough to where he was back for another season in 2013.
In between, a children’s picture book, “Dennis The Wild Bull” came out, encouraging kids to embrace being different. The synopsis: “Dennis was different. He had flash, and he had style, but when he was kidnapped from his home, and his family, and sent to perform in a rodeo, he found himself facing new and difficult challenges. With the help of his fellow performers, and a desire to be free, he found a way to use his individuality to win the day and get him home to his children.”
In January of 2022, Rodman said Bryant and O’Neal were “envious” of him during their time together since he got so much attention and the team allowed him to do his own thing.
“They couldn’t stand me on that damn team, to be honest with you,” he said.
He also said he dated the owner’s daughter and future team president Jeannie Buss for six months. Maybe that was an issue?
In September of 2022, Shaquille O’Neal called Rodman his worst teammate ever.
“He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you [are] letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He’d come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds.”
The Rodman name hasn’t just disappeared in the sports world.
His son, D.J., out of JSerra High in San Juan Capistrano, was a 6-foot-6 forward born in 2001 who played his final year of college ball at USC in 2023-24, transferring after his first four years at from Washington State. He wore No. 10.
His daughter, Trinity, also out of JSerra High and born in 2002, played for the U.S. Women’s National Team that competed in the 2023 World Cup and won gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She was 18 when she was drafted by Washington in the National Women’s Soccer League, winning Rookie of the Year on a team that won the title. She wore No. 2.
“People do know Trinity Rodman sometimes before Dennis Rodman now,” Trinity told ESPN in June 2022. “That’s a cool thing for me. I’m not trying to overcome what he accomplished, I just want to build my own story, and I think I’m doing a really good job.”
In December 2024, she said on a podcast about Dennis: “He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else.”
In 2021 GQ Men of the Year issue, Dennis Rodman subjected himself to an interview to focus on him as a style icon under the headline “Bad Boy for Life,” heralded for being a someone who “pushed buttons and fashioned himself into a gender-exploding rock star.”
Where was the “real” Rodman under the piercings and tats?
“He once claimed to have slept with 2,000 women in his lifetime and, more harrowingly, once claimed to have broken his penis during sex three times,” the story included. “He was almost 40 then, but still partied like it was his job. Sometimes it was. Like other celebrities, Dennis was reportedly offered up to six figures from clubs all over the world to make an appearance, to be the main attraction for a night.
“He was surrounded by people who never wished him well, if they wished him anything at all … For all the flashy outward signifiers, he’s carried a lot of pain inside, pain that he’s mostly kept to himself and that the partying has never cured, though it hasn’t stopped him from trying. The past few years, though, have seen him opening up a bit more publicly. He’s starting to reflect on his life now that he’s older, and he wants to make amends, though he’s not always clear on how. …
“Dennis Rodman says he’s ready for a reckoning. He wants to repair the damage he’s done to his relationships. He wants to atone for his mistakes. But the common denominator in his reasoning — “soon” — suggests he might not know how, and he continues to look for validation in sometimes strange places.
” ‘After turning 60 years old, it’s like, Shit. What’s left of me? How can I keep my mind in tune with life? Shit. How do I prepare myself to die? That’s the only thing I have left, is to die peacefully …
“I think I’ve got a lot more to give to people. I think I got a little more happiness for the youth of the world. But, for me, I think I’ve been preparing myself to die peacefully. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. It keeps my mind at ease because I know I’m going to do that. I’m not going to self-destruct like I was back then—10, 15 years ago. Hell, no. I got my life in control right now. Everything is going in the right direction.”
Who else wore No. 73 in SoCal sports history?
Make a case for:
Charlie Cowan, Los Angels Rams offensive lineman (1961 to 1975):
Started his career at left guard but made the Pro Bowl as a right tackle and left tackle from 1967 to ’70, starting 186 of 206 NFL games in L.A. alongside Tom Mack and Ken Iman. Cowan took the Rams’ offer (as a fifth-round pick) instead of being the 36th overall selection by the Denver Broncos in the 1961 AFL draft. In 1998 he died at age 59 from kidney failure complications.
Ron Yary, Los Angeles Rams offensive tackle (1982): At the end of a 15-year NFL career that led him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame based on his success with the Minnesota Vikings, the former USC Outland Trophy winner out of Bellflower High and Cerritos College game back to L.A. at age 36, wearing the same number he had in Minnesota (after wearing No. 77 at USC).
Tyler Toffoli, Los Angeles Kings center (2012-13 to 2019-20): Picked 47th overall in the 2010 NHL draft, Toffoli was a fan favorite during the team’s 2014 Stanley Cup run on “That 70s Line” with Jeff Carter and Tanner Pearson. Scored 23 goals in ’14-’15 and 31 goals in ’15-’16, where he had a league-best plus-35 ranking. Traded to Vancouver for a couple draft choices at the 2020 deadline. His eight seasons in L.A. from age 20 to 27: 515 games, 139 goals, 151 assists, and a hat trick during the chrome-helmeted Kings’ 3-1 win over Colorado on Feb. 15, 2020 at the Air Force Academy’s Falcon Field — a Stadium Series outdoor event at 6,600-feet above sea level where temperatures dipping into the 20s. Two of his goals were scored in the final minute, one to break a 1-1 tie, the other on an empty netter to seal it. He didn’t even keep his stick. He gave it to one of the cadets cheering him on. “The things that they do for the United States, all over the world, is pretty impressive. So, it wasn’t a very hard decision.”
Bob Winslow, USC football end (1937 to 1939): Part of the Trojans’ 1939 national title team that defeated Tennessee, 14-0, in the Rose Bowl to finish 8-0-2. Winslow came out of Inglewood High and in 1940, was drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions, also playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1944 he played quarterback for the Hollywood Rangers in its last years of the American Football League. Winslow was the backfield coach at USC from 1943 to ’46 and again in ’48. He was the head coach at the University of Arizona from 1949 to ’51. His son, Troy, was the USC quarterback in 1964 to ’66.
Have you heard this story:
George Stanich, UCLA basketball guard (1947-48 to 1949-1950):
A two-time all-Pacific Coast Conference performer, Stanich was coach John Wooden’s first All-American player in Westwood. Under coach Wilbur Johns in the 1947-48 season, the 6-foot-3 Stanich started at center and his 5-7 older brother John led Bruins in scoring. For the ’48-’49 season, Wooden came in and moved Stanich to guard. He also pitched for the baseball team three seasons, including throwing a 5-hit shutout as a sophomore as UCLA beat USC for the first time in five years. Some of that also happened as he was taking the bronze medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London in the high jump (where he initially thought he had the silver). Drafted by the NBA’s Rochester Royals No. 22 overall in 1950 (in the same draft where the Washington Royals drafted USC’s Bill Sharman), Stanich never entered the league deciding the money was in baseball. He pitched the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League, as well as Idaho Falls Russets and Stockton. Inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1985, Stanich became the Torrance High School baseball and football coach for one year (1955) before a 37-year run at El Camino Junior College (1956-1992), coaching basketball for the first 20 years and helping to get Keith Erickson on the UCLA roster. “Of all the men that I’ve met,” Erickson says, “George Stanich is as close to John Wooden as I’ve ever known.” The Gardena resident living near the ECC campus born in 1928 “touched the lives of so many young men,” said Ron Wey, a center on the 1960-61 ECC team, in The Union ECC newspaper. “He was a disciple of John Wooden, he did not cuss, drink or smoke. Very passionate about coaching his team. [Stanich] had a wonderful wife and family that made lots of sacrifices so he could spend time with us.”
Anyone else worth nominating?
1 thought on “No. 73: Dennis Rodman”