Rodman Tattooed for a Cool $228,000

Having head-butted a referee and challenged NBA Commissioner David Stern to make an example of him, Chicago’s Dennis Rodman got the bad news Monday:

A six-game suspension without pay, third-longest in NBA history, and a $20,000 fine, which, combined with the salary he will lose, is worth a total of $228,000.

Rodman’s teammates endorsed the penalty and criticized him. Before the team’s game in Philadelphia, Michael Jordan said Rodman had let down the Bulls, who had given him an opportunity to prove himself.

“We’re trying to progress as a team and he kind of let it go by the waysides,” Jordan said. “A lot of what you see in Dennis is his image and persona. He has continued to feed off that and that’s very dangerous to this team’s success. . . .

“I would rather he get all this [stuff] out of his system now so when the playoffs come we can focus on the game of basketball and we can count on him being in every game.”

Said Coach Phil Jackson, “Certainly his distractions are not acceptable. I think the league called it right.”

The Lakers’ Kermit Washington got the longest suspension, 26 games in 1977, for a punch that caved in the side of Rudy Tomjanovich’s face. Houston’s Vernon Maxwell got 10 games last season for going into the stands at Portland and hitting a fan.

Rodman got six games for bending over and lightly tapping referee Ted Bernhardt’s forehead with his own as he argued his ejection from Saturday’s game at New Jersey.

In this case, it was the tap that broke the league office’s patience. Rodman, tattooed, his hair dyed psychedelic colors, has been the NBA’s annual rebound champion--he again leads the league--and its reigning discipline problem in the ‘90s, during which he carried on a celebrated affair with Madonna and has been suspended by the league, or one of his three teams, seven times.

On good behavior--by his standards--this season, his first as a Bull, Rodman went off Saturday, arguing a foul call 5:44 into the game, then, after being hit with a technical foul by referee Paul Mihalak, putting his hands in his shorts.

Bernhardt, noting the gesture, ejected him but Rodman got wilder, butting Bernhardt’s head, knocking over a water cooler, stripping off his jersey and shouting obscenities as he left the court.

“They can suspend me and make an example out of Dennis Rodman, I don’t care,” Rodman said after the game. “If I butted him, I butted him. So suspend me, David Stern. Suspend me, Rod Thorn. You guys are so big, suspend me.”

The Bulls, on a record pace, have to finish 12-5 to break the Lakers’ league record of 69 victories, set in 1971-72. With Scottie Pippen already sidelined because of back and ankle injuries, they started a string of three games in four nights by barely winning, 98-94, at Philadelphia Monday night.

Rodman, ever isolated, rarely speaks to teammates off the floor. Until Saturday, he had shown only bursts of his famed volatility this season, incurring a $5,000 fine for failing to leave the court after an ejection at Seattle, and Bulls’ players are concerned by the latest turn.

Said Jordan after the New Jersey game, “If he happens to get suspended, maybe this is the opening he needs to get himself back on line and focus on the game and not the way he’s being perceived.”

Said reserve center Bill Wennington, “You can see it build slowly because the referees are paying so much attention to him. You know with his personality, something’s going to happen eventually.”

For Rodman, this is only the most celebrated incident in a long list.

As a Detroit Piston in the spring of 1993, mourning the breakup of his marriage, he dropped out of sight and was found in the early hours of the morning in the parking lot of the Auburn Palace with a rifle in his truck.

The following season, traded to San Antonio, he frequently absented himself from shoot-arounds--he said he didn’t shoot the ball often, anyway--embarrassing Coach John Lucas, who had gone to great lengths to placate him.

Then, in the first round of the playoffs, Rodman drew a one-game suspension for hip-checking Utah’s John Stockton. The Spurs lost in four games. Rodman’s lone friend on the team, Jack Haley, said Dennis’ fling with Madonna, then in full bloom, blew up the team.

Last season with Lucas gone, Rodman drew an early-season suspension for breaking team rules. Angered at an impasse with the front office over a promise to renegotiate his contract, he seemed to challenge Coach Bob Hill, removing his shoes and refusing to join timeout huddles. The Spurs finally suspended him again for a game during the Western Conference finals. Though favored, they lost to the Houston Rockets.

Vowing to suffer no more of his act, the Spurs traded Rodman to Chicago for Will Perdue, a backup center. At 34 and nearing free agency, Rodman responded by helping the Bulls spurt to a 57-7 start that is now 58-7.

But a week ago, he voiced exasperation at Jackson’s practice of limiting his minutes, which cut into his precious rebound totals. That ended the calm and in New Jersey, the latest storm hit.

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Hard Time

Longest NBA suspensions :

Year: 1977

Player: Kermit Washington

Games: 26

Reason: Punching Rudy Tomjanovich

*

Year: 1995

Player: Vernon Maxwell

Games: 10

Reason: Going into stands, hitting fan

*

Year: 1996

Player: Dennis Rodman

Games: 6

Reason: Head butting a referee

*

Year: 1993

Player: Greg Anthony

Games: 5

Reason: Fighting

Biggest NBA fines: *--*

Year Player Fine 1996 Dennis Rodman $20,000 1995 Vernon Maxwell $20,000 1993 Charles Barkley $20,000 Reason: Fighting 1993 Greg Anthony $20,000 1990 Bill Laimbeer $20,000 Reason: Fighting

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