August 13, 2011

The Dennis Rodman NBA Hall of Fame Induction Speech

I love Dennis Rodman. The 1995-1996, 72-10 season, and the subsequent NBA championship, depended as much on Rodman as anyone. I was privileged to see it.

Update: The following year, still one of the most amazing games I’ve ever seen:

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  1. Sheila Ryan on August 13th, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    Deron, I love Dennis Rodman, too.

    One summer in the mid-1990s, when Jon and I were hiking in the mountains in the far southwestern California desert, he was explaining Dennis Rodman to me.

    “He’s like us!” he said.

    You know. Kind of. Spiritually.

  2. Rick Neece on August 13th, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    Amen.

  3. Sheila Ryan on August 13th, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    “I didn’t play the game for the money. I didn’t play the game to be famous.”

  4. Deron Bauman on August 13th, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    For the last fifteen minutes of the Jordan flu game I was standing two feet from the television, arms crossed, goose bumps.

  5. Rick Neece on August 13th, 2011 at 10:06 pm

    Deron, I don’t know sports, but I know feeling how you felt. Arms crossed, goose bumps.

  6. Deron Bauman on August 14th, 2011 at 11:32 am

    Rick, it almost doesn’t matter what gets us there, it’s the there we get to.

  7. Josh Weichhand on August 14th, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    I used to attend Bulls games with my Dad when I was in grade school. I had the pleasure of watching much of their season in ’96 from the United Center, which in hindsight, I’m only now appreciating for how incredible it really was.

    Rodman was always an interesting cat – I think it was Chuck Klosterman who made the point to acknowledge Rodman’s age at the time. He was considerably older than the average NBA player.

  8. Deron Bauman on August 14th, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    Dang, Josh, what a wonderful experience. I wish I could have shared it with you. We’ll have to talk about that next time we see each other.

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