This time it was Dennis Rodman who saw something and he was the one who was disgusted.
“It just sickens me that we’ve got guys on this team that play low-post defense who are scared to knock someone on their butt,” said Rodman, who was on the bench with a sprained knee as the Bullets pounded the Bulls 46-29 on the backboards on their way to an upset victory Thursday night.
It was perhaps the harshest rebuke of his teammates by Rodman in his two seasons with the Bulls.
“You’ve got to knock someone on their butt to get their respect,” said Rodman. “I don’t give a crap if a guy (Bullets center Gheorghe Muresan) is 7-7. I knocked him on his butt the last game. You’ve got to get that respect, put that fear in his eyes. They come to the basket, you knock them on their butt at least once. You can’t be playin’ that Bill Laimbeer-phantom defense, that Statue of Liberty defense. That don’t get you nowhere.”
Except into Rodman’s doghouse, and one can only speculate what that is like.
But Rodman, the league’s premier rebounder when he is playing basketball, seemed to liken the Bulls’ defensive effort down low to what one would find in a kennel.
Luc Longley had just four rebounds and Dickey Simpkins had two in 16 minutes. Jason Caffey and Toni Kukoc led the Bulls with eight each as Muresan had a game-high 13 rebounds and a season-high 24 points while Chris Webber had 12 rebounds, seven offensive, to complement Rod Strickland’s game-highs of 26 points, 14 assists and seven rebounds.
Dennis and Brian Williams, where are you?
“They played extremely well,” Michael Jordan said of the Bullets. “The difference in the game was their offensive rebounding.”
“Muresan and Webber had 12 to give them second chance opportunities and they knocked the shots down. Muresan played extremely well and we could not stop Rod Strickland’s penetration. Our centers had a tough time from keeping Muresan from getting good position in the post and when he has good position, he has a soft touch.”
The Bulls used Caffey and Simpkins extensively down the stretch against Muresan with Longley ineffective early, but had no success.
But Rodman said size was irrelevant, except the size of one’s heart.
“If I was 7-foot, no man would outrebound me or outphysical me under the basket,” said Rodman. “He (Muresan) is too slow. Luc Longley is 7-2. You better go in and bust your butt. You go in and knock his butt to the ground. I’m 6-6 and 220 and I’m in there knocking his butt all the time.”
“I saw a team tonight, the low-post guys didn’t play defense,” said Rodman noting a 58-42 Bullets edge on inside scoring and holding his arms lazily in the air to mock Laimbeer’s defensive stance. “Playing that Laimbeer defense doesn’t get you anywhere. You’ve got to put a body on somebody so when they come in the lane you hit them at least once. It bothers me when our big guys don’t have that fire to go out there and knock someone on their butt. But when I get in the game, everyone seems to have that fire.”
Rodman is expected to be out until late in the regular season, or perhaps the playoffs, because of his injury.
“But I’m not gonna come back quicker,” said Rodman. “There’s no sense with the playoffs just around the corner, to go out there and turn it up and I could be through the rest of the year.
“Guys should be embarrassed about themselves to let those guys outrebound them, especially when we’re a lot more intelligent and organized than most teams, but you’re out there just going through the motions. That’s not right. I’ve got to get my butt back and light this team up as far as the physicalness. I always come back from suspensions and injuries stronger than ever and this is an indication to me I’ve got to come out and do my job.”
