Throughout his remarkable NBA career, Dennis Rodman was always in the spotlight. He was a troublemaker, a guy who would play by his own rules. And that’s one of the many things that made him one of the greatest players of all time.
Rodman’s résumé speaks for itself. He’s arguably the greatest rebounder in the history of the Association, a defensive threat from one through five, and the missingpiece teams needed to win an NBA championship.
However, dealing with him was no walk in the park. If anything, just ask Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, who tried to tame his character before eventually parting ways with him in 1995.
Dennis Rodman Says Gregg Popovich Was The Problem In San Antonio
(Transcript via Dennis Rodman’sBad as I Wanna Be.)
“The biggest problem in San Antonio was Gregg Popovich, the general manager. He wanted to be the coach and the general manager. He stood around and held Bob Hill’s (then the coach of the Spurs) hand every day, saying, ‘Okay, you’ve got to do this now. It’s time for you to listen to me.’ If Hill didn’t do it, Popovich would jump his *ss, and so HIll would turn around and jump somebody else’s *ss. Sh*t flows downhill, and it seemed like I was always at the bottom
Other than the playoffs I didn’t have much of a problem with Bob Hill. He was being used as much as I was. Popovich wanted to be the guy who tamed Dennis Rodman, and he tried to use Hill to do his dirty work. That was Popovich’s big challenge. Mr. Military was going to make me a good little boy, a good soldier. He lost sight of everything else, and then when he decided he couldn’t do anything with me, he badmouthed me and gave me away for next to nothing. Then he pretended it was good for the team”.
There aren’t many people who could or would say something bad about Gregg Popovich, but it’s Dennis Rodman we’re talking about. So, maybe, we should just take this with a grain of salt.