Rodman Just Couldn’t Stand This Decision

Welcome back, Dennis.

And goodbye.

After apparently taking one game to get acclimated following his brief retirement from the NBA, Dennis Rodman returned to form Tuesday night in his second appearance with the Dallas Mavericks, getting ejected for sitting down on the court after receiving a technical foul.

“No, it wasn’t deserved,” Rodman said. “I told the referee, ‘Why don’t you kick me out for a reason? Let me hit somebody first. That’s a good reason. Don’t kick me out because I sit down.’

“I’ve been a marked man for years. Nobody else in the league would have gotten kicked out for that. . . . I’d like to invite all the referees over to my house for a big orgy.”

Rodman, suspended for one game and fined $10,000 for the incident, also issued a challenge to the league’s commissioner.

“Me and David Stern could put some damn gloves on,” Rodman said, “and go in the ring. We’ll see who comes out the winner.”

*

Goodbye again: Rodman has been living in Maverick owner Mark Cuban’s guest house. But after NBA officials ordered the controversial forward out, ruling that the living arrangement is a violation of the salary-cap rules, Rodman has agreed to move.

“I loved having D.R. around,” Cuban told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s not like . . . he was a big partyer. It’s the exact opposite. The guy just chilled with his music and talked, and his friends would come over and we would all shoot the breeze. It was all cool.”

And goodbye car: In another rules violation, Cuban was renting a car to Maverick guard Greg Buckner for $15 a day. That arrangement has also been terminated.

Tough break. Imagine an NBA player being forced to rent a car on his own.

*

Trivia time: Spring training opens with seven new managers. Name them.

Blood, sweat and fungus: Look for “Ma’s Army” to march all the way to Sydney, Australia.

Chinese track coach Ma Junrun, whose female runners broke several world distance records in 1993, has been enlisted by his government to help prepare runners for this year’s Olympic Games in Australia.

Junrun, out of sight for several years because of health problems and a dispute with government officials, is a firm believer in high-altitude training, daily marathons and concoctions of herbs, turtle blood and fungus.

Maybe they’re all running so fast to get away from those concoctions.

*

Trivia answer: Mike Scioscia (Angels), Mike Hargrove (Baltimore), Charlie Manuel (Cleveland), Phil Garner (Detroit), Davey Lopes (Milwaukee), Buddy Bell (Colorado) and Don Baylor (Chicago Cubs).

*

And finally: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune on the thought of Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone passing the torch to the next generation of players: “If he had the torch, Malone would not have passed it. He would have stuck it in the water bucket and hidden the matches.”