Michael Jordan was the last person any member of the Chicago Bulls wanted to be on the wrong side of at any time of day. Known for his incessant pursuit of basketball perfection and the sharp tongue he never hesitated to use on anyone who wasn't on the same page as he was, MJ was as cutthroat with his teammates as he was with his foes.
Many of his former teammates can attest to this. From Scott Burrell's story of MJ calling his teammates "b—ches" to Steve Kerr getting punched, when it came to Jordan, his teammates had to match his level of intensity and dedication or risk getting left behind.
So, when the Bulls acquired flamboyant power forward Dennis Rodman in October 1995, many feared the worst. After all, the Worm had his fair share of quirks, and nobody had any idea which version would arrive to practice on any given day.
But as former Bulls sharpshooter Kerr detailed, Jordan and Rodman never clashed because MJ showed "quiet respect" for the rebounding and defensive demon.
To be clear, Jordan and Rodman rarely hung out, if at all. Rodman's version of fun was vastly different from Jordan's. They also didn't talk much outside of conversing about basketball strategy. Yet, despite their differences, Kerr said they still worked well simply because Jordan held Rodman in high regard due to their numerous clashes back when the latter still played for the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons.
"For three years, our team really dealt with it well. Michael had this sort of quiet respect for Dennis," Kerr relayed .
"They rarely communicated, but Michael respected Dennis for the way he competed and rebounded. He knew how important he was to the team and left Dennis to his own," Kerr continued.
It also helped that the Bulls already had an established group and a pecking order that Rodman knew and respected. This meant that the shenanigans he got away with in San Antonio weren't going to fly in Chicago.
"With Michael and Scottie, we already had an established pecking order with good leadership and a veteran team. So the rest of us were not really concerned," Kerr recalled.
Rodman was far from being a model employee or teammate. In fact, he was involved in several controversies during his time as a Bull. From kicking a photographer to headbutting a referee, the Worm was still the Worm after all. Through it all, MJ and company kept their mouths shut, aware that so long as Rodman was on his best behavior more than half the time and grabbing rebounds like his life depended on it, they would tolerate his zaniness.
But Kerr recalled that they knew the end of Rodman's tenure was near; the relationship between the player and the franchise reached its breaking point during the middle of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz when Rodman flew to Detroit in between Games 3 and 4, missed a practice to appear with Hulk Hogan in WCW.
"We had very little inner turmoil until the very end of our playoff run in '98 when [Rodman] left the team and did that wrestling thing and started missing practice," Kerr disclosed.
"I think it ran its course by the end. That was the thing with Dennis. He had a shelf life."
Despite that hiccup, Rodman returned and helped the Bulls win their sixth NBA championship in the 1990s. But that proved to be Rodman's last hurrah. Although he would still play in the next two seasons, he would only suit up in a combined 45 games for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks .
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on May 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
