Rodman will be the first to tell you, through various
books of his over the years, that he’s been on a decades-long search for
acceptance.
From his father who was never around. From his community in
Dallas, where he didn’t stick out. To his time playing hoops at tiny colleges,
when the larger ones ignored his growth spurt and recruited elsewhere. To a
plucky do-it-all guy in Detroit. As an underpaid former champion, looking for a
niche and a contract representative of his abilities. And even as this game’s
all-time greatest rebounder — and easily its most versatile defender — Dennis has
long been denied that acceptance in the usual NBA arenas (so to speak), because
he went about searching for it in his own unorthodox manner. Usually showy,
often tacky, not always a true representation of who he was, but always
inimitable.
This, though, is great news. On Friday, local radio station WCSX was the first to break the news that the Pistons are retiring Dennis Rodman’s No. 10:
Ken Calvert of WCSX (FM-94.7) first reported that the
Pistons will retire Rodman’s jersey — No. 10 — on April 1. Greg Monroe
currently wears No. 10 for the Pistons.
Best, the celebration comes on the night Rodman’s former Pistons take on his former Chicago Bulls outfit. Bestest? It comes on April Fool’s Day. Quite fitting for a player and person one-time coach Phil Jackson once lovingly described (using Lakota tribe language) as "the backwards walker."
I wish they wouldn’t bury it on a Friday afternoon, but this
is a breakthrough, and a very cool honor tossed at a person who should have
earned it long ago. You can think what you want about Dennis’ trade from
Detroit in 1993, or his current status as a bit of a desperate Ed Hardy
spokesman, but you can’t deny the fact that Rodman earned this designation
several times over.
The news keeps getting better for the Pistons.
The Detroit
Free Press reported as much this morning, and Crain’s
Detroit Business has confirmed that billionaire Tom Gores will be taking
over the Pistons soon enough:
"Negotiations are over. There is a deal. It’s for The
Palace, the entertainment business, for the team. It’s subject to the approval
of the NBA," an anonymous source told Bill Shea.
For the little we know about Gores, he could turn out to be the
owner who turns the team’s fortunes (literally) around, or he could turn out
to make Daniel Snyder look like someone who knows what he’s doing. At this
point, there’s no way of telling, though we clearly hope for the best.
And this is great news for a franchise, front office and
community that has been in limbo with the Pistons since the passing of longtime
owner William Davidson two years ago.
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