Dennis Rodman Says Former Bulls Shouldn’t Be Mad About ‘The Last Dance’
Dennis Rodman, the retired NBA superstar who is known for his antics both on and off the basketball court, said that his former Chicago Bulls teammates who had a problem with how they were portrayed in the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” should calm down.
Rodman, who can boast five championship rings, three with the Bulls and two with the Detroit Pistons, said players who were featured in the 10-part series on basketball icon Michael Jordan were not “mentally tough” enough to handle how they looked in the film and became critical of it.
"He didn't really pull me on that because I already had that will to win because I came from winners in Detroit and San Antonio,” Rodman said during a Thursday (May 21) appearance on the U.K. talk show Good Morning Britain. “The players were a little upset because they felt Michael was throwing them under the bus. ‘You guys wasn’t [sic] doing what I want you to do, I’m the greatest, I’m determined to win no matter what.’
“The next thing you know, Michael starts to talking [sic] about the whole team… the teammates I played with. Mentally, I don’t think they were strong enough to handle that, because Phil Jackson is a laid-back coach. Michael is more like, ‘I’m going to do it, watch me be famous.’ I didn’t care because I was already famous.”
Among the teammates who were reportedly upset about their portrayals were Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 reported that Pippen felt he “didn’t realize what he was getting himself into,” according to The New York Post.
“The Last Dance” broke several records for ESPN during its five-week run, averaging 5.6 million viewers per episode and a total of 13 million per episode in on-demand viewing, according to sports business news website Insidesport.co.