Dennis Rodman Checks Former Teammates Offended By The Last Dance: 'I Don’t Think They Were Strong Enough to Handle That'

In the aftermath of ESPN’s The Last Dance, there have been quite a few ruffled feathers. Reports have surfaced about Scottie Pippen being “beyond livid” at his portrayal and another former teammate, Craig Hodges, ripped Michael Jordan for statements that he made about the team he joined as a rookie.

“One of the things as players we call this a fraternity,” Hodges told Fox Sports Radio. “So I’m watching the first episode and I was upset about the ‘cocaine circus.’ That bothered me because I was thinking about the brothers who are on that picture with you who have to explain to their families who are getting ready to watch this great Michael Jordan documentary event and they know you’re on the team, and now you’ve got to explain that to a 12-year-old boy.”

In response to all this, Dennis Rodman, who anchored the paint during the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat in the 90s, has one thing to say: shut that shit up.

“The players were a little upset because they felt Michael was throwing them under the bus. ‘You guys wasn’t [sic] doing what I want you to do, I’m the greatest, I’m determined to win no matter what,’” he told Good Morning Britain. “The next thing you know, Michael starts to talking [sic] about the whole team… the teammates I played with.

He continued, “Mentally, I don’t think they were strong enough to handle that, because [former Chicago Bulls head coach] Phil Jackson is a laid-back coach. Michael is more like, ‘I’m going to do it, watch me be famous.’ I didn’t care because I was already famous.”

Rodman’s stance is interesting because he had significant leeway during the Bulls’ final champion run in 1998. Not only was he allowed to take a mid-season vacation to Las Vegas, but he skipped practice during the NBA Finals to go participate in a World Wrestling Championship event. Yet despite all this, and the fact that they were both brought up in the film, he takes no issue with how he was portrayed. But then again, he wasn’t called “selfish” like Pippen was, or part of a “cocaine circus” like Hodges.

Horace Grant is another former teammate who’s taken issue with Jordan since The Last Dance aired. On Tuesday, he tore into His Airness for continuing to “completely lie” about Grant’s involvement in the 1992 book The Jordan Rules, which features anonymous quotes that created a schism within the Bulls organization.

“If M.J. had a grudge with me, let’s settle it like men,” Grant told ESPN Radio in Chicago. “Let’s talk about it, or we can settle it another way. Yet and still, he puts out this lie out that I was the source behind it. […] He says I was the snitch, but still after 35 years he brings up his rookie year, going into one of his teammates rooms and seeing coke and weed and women. My point is, why did he want to bring that up? What does that got to do with anything? If you want to call somebody a snitch, that’s a damn snitch right there.”

Rodman is obviously entitled to his opinion, but considering all the heat that Jordan is unnecessarily bringing onto himself, he might wanna sit this one out.