Hard Work Pays Off for Pistons’ Rodman

It’s no accident that Dennis Rodman leads the NBA in rebounds.

Consider his routine for each of the Detroit Pistons’ home games:

--Before shoot-around, Rodman does 30 minutes of aerobics while watching a videotape of that night’s opponent.

--After shoot-around, it’s another 30 minutes of aerobics, then home for a short rest. When he returns to The Palace, he takes shooting practice.

--When the game is over, Rodman -- who has been averaging 39.7 minutes of playing time -- spends at least 30 minutes peddling a stationary bike.

“You can’t ask for more than that,” said teammate John Salley, who calls Rodman “a 30-year-old man in an 18-year-old body.”

“He should be the highest-paid player on this team. Man, I wish I were his agent.”

The work has certainly paid off for the Pistons. Rodman is averaging a career-best 18.1 rebounds per game and is on a pace to shatter Bob Lanier’s team record of 14.9 rebounds a game.

Nobody in the NBA has averaged more than 16 rebounds over a season since Moses Malone averaged 17.6 per game -- in 1979.

Rodman’s 32 rebounds against Charlotte was one short of the team record set by Lanier. The fewest rebounds Rodman has had this season was five, in the opener against Milwaukee.

He has led the team in rebounding in every game since.

“It’s a work ethic,” Pistons coach Chuck Daly said. “Every coach in the world has tried to get guys to do it. It’s the hardest thing in the game to do.

“There’s less carryover from practice to games in rebounding, in getting guys to box out. It’s only when a guy makes up his mind, like Dennis did this year, that it happens. Many guys are capable of it, physically. We’ve got five or six. But not many do it.”

Rodman is one of the few players to make the NBA All-Star team for defense alone. Heaven knows, he doesn’t score much. Rodman is averaging only 9.7 points per game. His highest was 20, twice.

He has never scored more than 34 points in a game, modest by NBA standards. Yet, he’s having a season worthy of MVP consideration.

“It’s a message to the entire basketball world,” Daly said. “It tells kids that can’t shoot that there are other parts of the game that are very important, and you can be very successful, other than scoring.

“Unfortunately, the game is based on stats, scoring, things of that nature. But here’s a guy who does it with hard work. And he gives a whole new area for people to get involved with in basketball.”

Rodman’s feats are all the more remarkable when you consider that he stands just 6-foot-8. There are point guards that tall these days. But he plays with a determination few can match.

“I want the ball,” Rodman explained, simply. “I know that’s the way to go, because I know at the offensive end, I’m not going to get it and shoot it. So I just focus myself to get the ball any way I can, either on offense or defense.

“Anything I can do to get the ball off the rim, I’m going to get it. I will not be denied.”

Imagine if Rodman averaged 20 points a game, and still played defense the way he does. He might force the NBA to invent a whole new grading system.

But it won’t happen.

“The thing that makes Dennis so good is he’s very simplistic,” Isiah Thomas said. “He rebounds and he plays defense. He does the things that he can do. He stays away from the things that he can’t do.

“The things that he can do, he practices them all the time. Therefore, he becomes better and better at the things that he can do. The things that he can’t do, he doesn’t waste his time practicing on them.”

Thomas is part of the reason Rodman became what he is today. He told Rodman early on that he could help the club most by playing defense.

“When he walked into camp, he was the third- or fourth-best player on our team at the time, as a rookie,” Thomas recalled. “I thought, ‘How could so many people miss? How could he get to the second round?”’

Pistons general manager Jack McCloskey answered that.

Fresh out of Southeastern Oklahoma State in 1986, Rodman impressed many pro scouts at a summer rookie camp. But in two other camps, in Chicago and Hawaii, he played poorly and his stock dropped.

“I sent our trainer, Mike Abdenour, to check Dennis out,” McCloskey recalled. “It turned out he was suffering from asthma.”

So the Pistons took a chance. They made Salley the 11th player selected overall with their first-round draft pick. Then they held their breath, hoping Rodman would slide. He did and Detroit made Rodman the 27th player drafted overall with their second-round pick.

“I was so thankful we could get Dennis,” McCloskey said. “I just thought he’d be a great player.”

The Pistons were afraid Rodman had a broken left hand early in January. X-rays were negative, but the hand remains sore and he will wear a pad on it the rest of the season. In addition, he has a rotator-cuff injury to the right shoulder.

“It’s no problem,” Rodman said. “I can keep going. I feel fine.”