Rodman Review: The Pistons Era.

 

 This August, while the NBA slows to a crawl, Mojo Hoops looks back at the peaks of Dennis Rodman's brilliant NBA career. If anyone epitomizes the hustle, defense & originality of a Mojo Hoops type player, Rodman is that baller. Each piece will focus on a different stage of Rodman's unusual NBA journey and beyond. First up, the Pistons years. 

 ESPN's Classic Sports channel recently aired a game from March 4, 1992 where 6'7" Dennis Rodman, the Worm, grabbed 34 rebounds against the Indiana Pacers. He set a team record for the Pistons and no NBA player has rebounded 34 or more in a game since. 

 Check out this edited version of the game featured on Gremlin's Youtube channel.

 When Rodman learned that he broke the Pistons' team record held by Bob Lanier, he cried and said, "I have just been in the right place at the right time. I got emotional because when you work so hard to accomplish something, it is a great feeling when it finally pays off."

 The Pacers only managed 38 rebounds as a team and lost 110-107 in OT. Their coach Bob Hill said, "Rebounding took its toll. We didn't keep them off the boards, but Rodman's a freak of nature. He keeps coming and coming, like Joe Frazier when he fought Ali."

 1992 was Rodman's breakout year as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history. He grabbed a career high 18.7 rpg and led the league in rebounding for the first of 7 straight years. In the last 35 years, the closest any other player has come to that average is Ben Wallace's 15.4 in 2003, over three fewer fewer boards per game.

 Rodman was a two time champ with the Pistons. He had already won Defensive Player of the Year twice before taking over as the best rebounder of his era. A strong on-ball defender, the Worm mastered mind games early in his career, slithering into the psyche of opponents who were distracted by his menacing techniques.

 Watch this clip from November 30, 1990 where Rodman riles Barkley into an elbow and an ejection in crunch time. 

He even made the free throws.  

 Rodman was a freak in Detroit with his short-shorts and writings in his hair. He'd already developed high-kicking rebounding techniques and a rep for being dirty as one of the Bad Boys on the Pistons. But he still seemed like a pretty regular dude overall. 

 That version of Dennis Rodman died in 1993 while Rodman slept in his truck with a loaded shotgun on his lap after contemplating suicide. In his book Bad As I Wanna Be, Rodman wrote, "I decided that instead (of killing myself) I was gonna kill the impostor that was leading Dennis Rodman to a place he didn't want to go.... So I just said, 'I'm going to live my life the way I want to live it and be happy doing it. I killed the person I didn't want to be.'"

 On October 1, 1993, the Pistons traded the new Dennis to the Spurs. The next Rodman Review will feature the Worm's adventures with the Admiral and the Deacon in San Antonio.

    

Dwight Howard Bitches, But He's Moving On!!!

Dwight Howard has broken the first rule of DPOY Club- "Don't foul out on cheap calls and then bitch about it." His poor techniques have led his teammates to call him "Foul on You." In round one, he committed 22 fouls in 4 games against the Bobcats who don't have a truly dominant low post threat on either end of the court.

Howard gets boards and blocks. He is a force in the paint with great size and strength.

"My teammates say when we wrestle I shouldn't use 100 percent of my strength," he said before game 4. "They said I should use 50 or 40 percent. So that's been the main focus, using 40 percent of my strength to hold guys off." He fouled out anyway.

Yesterday Howard was fined $35,000 in David Stern's new "Don't Dis My Refs" campaign which is steadily approaching it's goal of raising a million dollars during the playoffs. Howard was thoughtful enough to put his complaints in his blog instead of using the mainstream media, but Czar Stern zapped him anyway.

In his blog entry called "More frustration, but we're moving on!!!" Howard wrote, "I'm not looking to say anything to get myself in trouble with the league, but I just don't see other star players getting called for fouls the way I get them. No star player in the league is outta games the way I am. I even talked to Pat Ewing about his career and he said he never had foul trouble like what I'm going through." That's because Patrick had skills getting positioning in the paint and boxing out. Ditto Shaq, Tim Duncan and any other "star player" big man.

Bitching about the refs after winning a four game sweep is weak. A DPOY bitching about ticky tack calls night after night is dubious. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy complained that Howard wasn't being seriously considered for MVP. Please. How about Dwight Howard, Whiner Of The Year.

    

Dwyane Wade - Defensive Small Of The Year

The NBA started handing out Defensive Player Of The Year awards in the 1982-83 season. Bucks guard Sidney Moncrief won the first 2 awards. He and 85-86 winner Alvin Robertson were the shortest winners at 6'3". The only other true guards to win the award were Michael Jordan, 6'6" in 87-88 and Gary Payton, 6'4" in 95-96. 

Most other DPOY winners were big men who blocked shots and dominated the paint. From Mark Eaton to Dikembe to Ben Wallace and now Dwight Howard, the media usually rewards guys who put up big numbers in boards & blocks. More than half the awards have been won by centers and there hasn't been a true guard winner in 14 years since Payton.

However, shot blockers in today's NBA usually don't guard the most dangerous player on the opposing team. What dominant center is Dwight Howard shutting down? Matt Barnes is dealing with Kobe for 35 minutes while Dwight shuts down Bynum. And Dwight gets an award for that? Howard doesn't guard any of the top MVP candidates like LeBron, Kobe, Carmelo, Durant, Dirk or Wade and yet he was named defensive player of the year.

Having a big guy who is ready to block shots and help out on defense is valuable. Rebounds are a big plus as well. But how about the guards who lock down the best players without needing help? How about the small guys who stay in front of their man, disrupt the offense's rhythm and force steals? 

Basing the award on who does the best job guarding the best offensive players as well as providing help when needed, I'm giving this season's Defensive Player of the Year to 6'4" Miami guard Dwyane Wade. 

Wade finished the season 1st among guards with 1.07 bpg, 4th among guards with 1.84 spg, & 8th among guards with 4.9 rpg. Jason Kidd was the only other guard in the top 10 of all 3 categories.

Wade is one of the best on ball defenders in the league, effectively guarding the likes of Kobe, LeBron and Deron Williams.

Wade is also an outstanding help defender, capitalizing on passing lane steals and weak side blocks. In a win against Charlotte in March, Wade had a game high 5 blocked shots, including this crusher over 7'1" Tyson Chandler. 9 inches of height difference is no obstacle for Flash. 

Rajon Rondo is another guard who had an outstanding year defensively. Rondo led the entire league in steals and was effective guarding the league's best offensive point guards. But he also had help with Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins & Rasheed Wallace patrolling the paint behind him. That enabled him to take more risks than Wade who had a faded out Jermaine O'Neal in his front court.

Dwyane Wade faced the toughest defensive challenges with the best results night after night. Maybe the coaches will give him more recognition when the All-NBA Defensive teams are announced.

For now, he is the Mojo Hoops Defensive Small of the Year.

Ron Ron Takes Rodman Further

Ron Ron went blond blond & is getting the word for "defense" put in his hair in different languages of the world. Close the voting for Defensive Player of the Year. We have a winner.