Stern to Rule on Rodman Next Week

NBA Commissioner David Stern will decide early next week whether Dennis Rodman can return to the Chicago Bulls after the All-Star break.

Stern and Rodman met Friday at the NBA offices, and decided an arbitrator will rule on whether Rodman can go to arbitration in attempt to get back more than $1.1 million in pay lost during the suspension.

“It was a positive meeting,” union head Bill Hunter said. “We were trying to get some resolution. I had been insisting on arbitration and had been threatening to go to court to get an arbitrator appointed.”

Rodman was suspended for at least 11 games without pay for kicking courtside cameraman Eugene Amos in Minneapolis on Jan. 15, fined $25,000 and ordered to undergo counseling.

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The Dallas Mavericks contacted former NBA coach Don Nelson about filling their vacant general manager’s role. . . . Simon Gourdine, fired as executive director of the players’ union after its latest collective bargaining agreement, was awarded $883,738 plus interest by a panel of three arbitrators.