Dennis Rodman Battles Bill Laimbeer in First Return to Detroit (Rodman Ejected)
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Published 2021-07-08
The fireworks kicked off less than a minute into the game, with the newly blonde Dennis Rodman drawing a technical foul following the first basket of the night. Laimbeer and Rodman would continue to grapple throughout the evening, culminating in Rodman's ejection with less than three minutes remaining in a 95-86 Spurs loss.
Laimbeer was facing his own bit of controversy at the time. Just three days prior, teammate Isiah Thomas had broken his hand punching Laimbeer in practice. This event came just weeks after Thomas had also broken a rib while absorbing a Laimbeer elbow.
Despite a productive stretch of basketball immediately following the fracas (a three-game period in which he averaged 20.3 points and 6.7 rebounds at age 36), Laimbeer remained sensitive to his reputation within his adopted hometown. Citing a loss of desire at the time, Laimbeer announced his retirement just nine days following his matchup with Dennis Rodman.
Box Score: www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199311190DE…
Laimbeer's retirement: www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-12-02-931…
All Comments (21)
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People forget that it wasnt just Jordan that made the league so watchable in the 90s. There was a plethora of colorful characters like Rodman, Gary Payton, Mahorn, Lambeer which made the league so fun to watch.
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Damn watching Bill you can really see where Dennis got all his antics from..lol
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No One can make Rodman so mad, except Laimbeer
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Dennis Rodman in a Spurs jersey, Sean Elliot in a Pistons jersey. Bizzaro world indeed
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Rodman forgot Bill Laimbeer was the master teacher.
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Laimbeer gave Dennis a Master Class in agitation and distraction. Rodman would learn all those lessons and apply them a few years later with the Bulls.
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This was bill laimbeer teaching rodman his last lessons.
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It was just like practice ....and Laimbeer knew exactly what buttons to push.
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Dang that was Tom Thibodeau as an Assistant Coach of the San Antonio Spurs, with a head full of hair, holding back Dennis Rodman at the end there.
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Bill Lambeers combat basketball in full effect. Crazy rodman took this act up another notch as the years went on hahaha
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90s basketball was peak
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The way Dennis is dressed in the opening interview makes it seem like 2022
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And that's how Rodman learned to use taunting while keeping his cool and the opposing player agitated.
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This video makes me laugh so much because Dennis knew as well as anybody about Laimbeer and how he agitates opposing player yet STILL fell for it. Laimbeer underrated af
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Bill was the undisputed king of the head games. He could get you off your game so easy. Teams would just self destruct.
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Laimbeer is king of trolling To this day Larry Bird still hates Laimbeer. Rodman never reached the level. This battle was over even before it started.
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That’s like pro wrestling. The refs pretend they don’t see the stuff Laimbeer is doing and make the calls against the other guy.
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Rodman could not be controlled by David Robinson or John Lucas in San Antonio. It would take players with the presence of a Michael Jordan or Isiah Thomas or a coach with the authority such as Chuck Daley or Phil Jackson to keep Rodman focused. Even Shaq and Kobe with Kurt Rambis as head coach could not keep Rodman on track. I have a feeling that if Phil Jackson had started with the Lakers in the '98-'99 season, he would have been able to keep Rodman mentally and emotionally focused for them to win the championship. They certainly had the talent with a Shaq who was still peaking, Kobe who was starting at that point and some veterans.
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That last foul was like a parallel twilight zone dimension kind of thing, seeing Spurs Rodman foul Pistons Elliott lol.
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How can you watch a whole 3 point game after watching this jewel? Man, I miss the good old days!!!
