Bulls Should Dump Rodman

The Chicago Bulls took a gamble last year on Dennis Rodman, and it paid off.

The Bulls won the 1996 NBA title.

Now they don’t need to push their luck. It’s time to dump Dennis Rodman.

And not only because he’s asking for at least $10 million for one season.

It’s time to get rid of Rodman before he becomes an even bigger embarrassment than he was last season, before there’s not a shred of dignity left among Chicago basketball fans, and because even on his best behavior last season Rodman missed a quarter of the season. He violated numerous team rules throughout the season - yes, he was repeatedly late for games and practices - and committed perhaps the worst assault on a basketball official in the last decade with his headbutt of a referee.

And this was when Rodman was trying to reshape his image.

When he missed 12 games early in the season with a calf injury, the Bulls believed he was faking - examinations never revealed any tear or serious injury - and didn’t want to play because his teammates were refusing to talk to him.

Rodman said he’d be out four weeks.

A day before that four-week period, long after the Bulls believed Rodman was well enough to play, coach Phil Jackson asked Rodman to practice.

Rodman’s answer: “My four weeks isn’t up yet.”

Rodman, according to team sources, also received what the team considers “major” fines at least twice for team violations that went beyond the usual fines for tardiness, and even threatened to skip the last game of the NBA Finals because he was tired from being out so late the night before.

Little of this was acknowledged during the season as the Bulls tried to limit Rodman’s distractions.

Because Rodman was proving an almost constant embarrassment to the organization, acting as if he were drunk on his TV show and sticking his face in a birthday cake for Jay Leno. And then he wore women’s clothing and makeup for a book signing on Michigan Avenue that top team officials privately said was the most disgusting display by an athlete they’d ever witnessed.

There’s no denying Rodman is a talented player and terrific rebounder. He was a key factor in several playoff games.

But the Bulls won the title because of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, not Dennis Rodman.

And had not Jordan been so uncharacteristically ineffective against Orlando in the 1995 playoffs, it’s likely the Bulls would have beaten Orlando then and gone to the Finals.

Without any power forward.

What the Bulls should have done is dump Rodman a month ago and signed free agent Antonio Davis.

There’s no doubt the Bulls would have won the title had they signed Jayson Williams instead of Rodman.

Maybe not 72 wins, but what’s really important?

Now he says Horace Grant makes $10 million; he’s as good so he should also. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.

The Magic owed Grant for signing with them for less money. There’s a future with Grant, likewise the Heat with Alonzo Mourning. The Bulls owed Jordan. They don’t owe Rodman.

And there isn’t a team in the NBA offering Rodman even $5 million a year.

The Bulls enabled Rodman to reclaim an image and earn millions off the court. Now they’re even. To bring Rodman back now would be dangerous.

Now he’s got a movie and an MTV show.

If he behaved erratically to attract attention when he was on Chicago television, imagine what he’ll do now with a nation expecting bizarre behavior. And he’s already talking about playing naked in his last NBA game.

Please, don’t let it be in Chicago.

It was fun to have Rodman around last season and worth it. It won’t be again.