YouTube Gold: Dennis Rodman Goes Back To Detroit

Dennis Rodman is most famous for his outrageous, attention-getting antics, but what a lot of people miss about him is that he had a deeply traumatic childhood. He claims to have 47 siblings on his father’s side - he has only seen his father a few times - and had issues with his mother as well.

His life was never easy and when the Pistons picked in in the 1986 NBA Draft, he began to find a place of his own for the first time.

He was terrific with Detroit, helping them to two NBA championships and forming an important bond with coach Chuck Daly.

But Daly resigned in 1992 and Rodman was traded to the San Antonio Spurs for the 1993-94 season, not all that long after he seriously considered suicide.

His first trip back to Detroit, the city where he found worth in himself, came in November of 1993, and he, of course, ran into his old teammate Bill Laimbeer.

Rodman draws his first technical in the first :30 seconds and causes chaos before eventually being tossed near the end. Being Rodman, of course meant making a scene. As the announcer says, he was going to get his money’s worth.

He was a bad fit with the Spurs and they ultimately sent him to Chicago, where he became part of one of the NBA’s great dynasties with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, among others.