Dennis Rodman Reebok Ad - 1989

 Who remembers this Reebok commercial featuring soon-to-be Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman? This is pre-tats, pre-piercing, pre-Madonna, Detroit Piston champion Defensive Player of the Year Dennis Rodman pumping Reeboks with subtle jabs at the Bulls, Michael Jordan and Nike.

Kevin Garnett Squashes Villanueva Cancer Misunderstanding

 Kevin Garnett clarified the misunderstanding that led to Charlie Villanueva misquoting him on twitter after the Celtics' 109-86 blow out of the Pistons Tuesday night. Villanueva accused Garnett of saying the Pistons forward looks like a cancer patient with his hairlessness. 

 "I am aware there was a major miscommunication regarding something I said on the court last night," Garnett said in a statement. "My comment to Charlie Villanueva was in fact 'You are cancerous to your team and our league.' I would never be insensitive to the brave struggle that cancer patients endure. I have lost loved ones to this deadly disease and have a family member currently undergoing treatment. I would never say anything that distasteful. The game of life is far bigger than the game of basketball."

 Now that that's settled, Charlie Villanueva can focus on the real problems in his life like being a 6'11" guy who's averaging only 5.9 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per game over his career.  Or how about the fact that in five years with three different teams, he's only won more than 28 games once, and that was 34 games with the Bucks in 2008-09. 

 The Bucks didn't fight to keep Villanueva after that season and he signed with the Pistons as a free agent. Milwaukee won 12 more games the next season. That same year, the Pistons lost 12 more games than they'd won the year before Villanueva got there. Coincidence? I think not.

 Kevin Garnett may have a point, if he really said what he says he said about Charlie Villanueva.

    

Charlie Villanueva cries about Kevin Garnett cancer joke

 After suffering a 109-86 beatdown by the Boston Celtics Tuesday night, Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva tweeted his displeasure with Kevin Garnett's trash talk during the game. He accused Garnett of calling him a "cancer patient". 

 Villanueva has alopecia universalis which is a condition that leaves him with no body hair including eyebrows and eyelashes. Villanueva said he was "pissed" because he knows people who have died from cancer and that Garnett shouldn't joke about it.

 I appreciate Villanueva's concern for cancer patients. I've suffered significant and devastating loss in my family due to the cruelty of cancer. Perhaps Kevin Garnett was out of line for making jokes about a serious and often fatal illness.

 However, Charlie Villanueva should man up and shut up. Tattling about what somebody said to you on the court is as soft as it gets. Imagine Dennis Rodman saying, "Charles Barkley called me a faggot and that's not nice." Not even Shawn Bradley would ever have said, "Gary Payton called me the albino saltine and that's mean to albinos."

 Fans don't need to know if Garnett talked about Villanueva's mama, if he said his girl is ugly or that he plays like a palsy patient on the court. If he didn't like what Garnett said, he should've done more in his 33 minutes to keep Garnett from scoring a game high 22 points. 

 Villanueva finished with only one foul. He easily could've used a foul to bang Garnett and tell him "That was for cancer patients you chemo breath motherfucker." The game was a blowout and the Pistons are 0-4. A good hard flagrant foul might have sent a message that at least one player besides Ben Wallace is ready to go to war for Detroit.

 Villanueva also tweeted, "KG talks alot of crap, he's prob never been in a fight, I would love to get in a ring with him, I will expose him." He had his chance to swing on KG and didn't do a damn thing. He waited until he got home and tweeted about it. 

 Tonight the Pistons play the Atlanta Hawks. I hope Villanueva isn't up all night tweeting, "Josh Smith said I cry like a bitch and dammit, dogs have feelings too."

  

  

Shaq vs. Big Ben

One question: Who will have more rebounds this season, Shaquille O'Neal or Ben Wallace?

    

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.

    

Isiah Thomas Will Never Die

 Isiah Thomas will never die. 

 Isiah Lord Thomas III. 

 I.T. will never die.

 

 Thomas won his first major basketball championship under ogre coach Bobby Knight at Indiana University. As he accepted an award for his excellent play under Knight, Thomas publicly thanked his coach for teaching him the effectiveness of expressions like "fuck you" and "asshole." Knight laughed. Isiah survived.

 Isiah joined the Pistons in the NBA and became one of the best and most popular point guards of his era. He was the smiling pretty boy on a team of brutes & thugs like Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman and Rick Mahorn. He was the leader of a thuggish rebel coup who masked the insanity of the Bad Boys with laughter.

 He used to smooch Magic Johnson at midcourt before their head to head battles. The two point guard studs hung out together, partied together and loved on each other even more than LeBron James & Chris Paul do.

 At some point, Magic turned against Isiah, but didn't let the Bad Boys' leader know. The usually friendly and charismatic Johnson eventually aired the dirt on his disdain for Thomas in a book. Magic's usually a classy guy. Somehow Isiah brought out the darkness in him. Maybe it started with this exchange of hard fouls.

 Isiah and the Bad Boys were known for rough, physical & aggressive play. Magic retaliated with his book. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen got revenge by denying Isiah a spot on the original Dream Team. 

 Karl Malone's revenge may have been the sweetest when he delivered this vicious elbow leading to 40 stitches and plastic surgery for Thomas.

 Isiah's rep as a dirty player didn't hurt him as he moved into the front office phase of career. He became a part-owner and GM of the expansionToronto Raptors. While he was successful in drafting Rookie of the Year Damon Stoudamire and future all-stars Marcus Camby and Tracy McGrady, he left the struggling Raptors after a failed bid for increased ownership and a dispute over the team's direction.

 Unable to buy an NBA team, Thomas went for a whole league when he purchased the CBA in 1999 for $10 million. The league had been in operation since 1946 and had been acting as a successful, unofficial farm-like system for the NBA since the early '80s.

 Within 2 years of Isiah's leadership, the league was dead and bankrupt thanks to his mismanagement.

 Isiah escaped unscathed and was hired by Donnie Walsh to coach the Indiana Pacers. He coached Reggie Miller and company into the playoffs in all three of his seasons. His former on-court nemesis Larry Bird took over as president of the Pacers in 2003 and his first move was to fire Isiah. Somewhere, Magic and Michael were laughing. 

 Six months later, Isiah was named President of the Knicks. Personal turmoil with players crept up again when Stephon Marbury threatened revenge on Isiah for benching him. On the team plane, an angry Marbury told his teammates, "Isiah has to start me. I've got so much shit on Isiah and he knows it. He thinks he can fuck me. But I'll fuck him first. You have no idea what I know."

 Marbury didn't end up snitching on Isiah, who'd already cost the Knicks $11 million in a sexual harrassment case with team executive Anucha Brown Sanders. Thomas was eventually relinquished of coaching and front office duties after leading the Knicks to their worst season ever. He avoided full dismissal when Knicks' owner Jim Dolan kept him on the payroll as a scout.

 In July of 2010 after a year of coaching collage ball, Isiah returned to New York to try to help the Knicks woo LeBron. They failed with LeBron's people saying that the Knicks' presentation was poorly prepared and disorganized.

 Dolan rewarded Isiah by hiring him as a consultant in recruiting next year's top free agents like Carmelo Anthony. Knicks fans are left wondering why.

 On the mean streets of Chicago and under the fiery tutelage of Bobby Knight, Isiah survived. Despite feeling the wrath of NBA greats Michael, Magic & Larry, Isiah thrived. Franchises crumbled and leagues died while Isiah stays alive. 

 Isiah Thomas will never die.