Addition by distraction

Sporting News, The, Nov 6, 1995 by Sam Smith

It was late in a preseason game between the Bulls and the Bullets, and Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman - teammates - were watching the reserves stumble away the remainder of the game. Neither seemed to be paying much attention, not talking, their minds clearly elsewhere as a halfdozen free agents whom neither would see within a week or two ran the court.

Just then, a Bulls fan walking past the bench in the United Center stopped and started talking to Rodman, who turned around and shook hands with the man.

Jordan turned away, for it is not his habit to get into conversations with fans during games. But at the same time he smiled and laughed.

And as the season approaches, Jordan is smiling now about the prospect of having Rodman retrieve missed shots and return them to Bulls, especially Jordan, for second and third chances. Whether Jordan will be smiling come spring is the question about which everyone in Chicago is wondering, including Jordan.

For the Bulls to succeed again, Jordan will have to be in his best psychiatric shape, his best military shape, as a leader of men, particularly Dennis Rodman. The reason is clear: Despite the brilliance of Jordan, the often unappreciated greatness of Scottie Pippen and the developing stardom of Toni Kukoc, it is Rodman who perhaps provides the difference between another second-round playoff elimination and a fourth NBA title in the last six seasons.

All the other pieces seem to be in place. Kukoc is expected to provide leadership and a scoring boost for the second team. Ron Harper, a freeagent bust last season, is being moved into the starting backcourt to better match up with Orlando's big guards and give the Bulls the defensive, ball-pressure threat that made them so frightening in their three-championship run. Also added was ball-hawking free-agent guard Randy Brown from Sacramento to help defend the smaller, quicker point guards.

But Rodman is the missing link.

He is the rebounder the Bulls woefully lacked against Horace Grant and Orlando last spring. He is the defender who gives players pause when they attack the basket - a presence the Bulls lacked last season with Luc Longley, Will Perdue, Dickey Simpkins, Corie Blount and Larry Krystkowiak.

But something - actually, someone - has to persuade Rodman his personal agenda of attention and self-gratification trails the necessities of team success.

The Spurs thought playing for the team with the best record and playing alongside David Robinson, the league's best player (as voted by the media) would be enough. But the discovered otherwise.

"Dennis says he's an entertainer," Spurs reserve Chuck Person says. "He always tries to make sure he's seen, and sometimes it comes at an inopportune time. ... He was with the best team. But he wanted out."

Now Rodman is with the best player, and while Coach Phil Jackson says the rules were set down for Rodman before the trade was made - just what the Spurs said before trading for Rodman - it is clear Jordan's ability as a leader will be tested as never before.

Because never has there been a teammate like Dennis Rodman.

Rodman's acquisition was a departure from every standard set by the organization. In taking on the troubled and troubling forward, the Bulls undoubtedly got one of the game's great rebounders and defensive players, but also an erratic individual capable of distracting a team in his personal quest for glory and individualism.

For years, General Manager Jerry Krause demeaned other teams' acquisitions of troubled and troublesome players, noting how success was built on what he called addition by subtraction, effectively improving the team by ridding it of such divisive talents as Quintin Dailey, Orlando Woolridge, Ennis Whatley and Mitchell Wiggins. The organization even. declined to make an offer to free-agent power forward Scott Williams in 1994 because his behavior was believed too erratic.

But a chance to win another championship - and a rapidly closing window of opportunity with jordan probably a year or two away from another retirement and Pippen also over 30 - persuaded Krause to drop pretenses about quality character and go for talent.

It could have been Darryl Strawberry or Dwight Gooden or Steve Howe or Dexter Manley.

But they can't rebound or block the middle of the defense.

Rodman can, perhaps better than anyone, and there seemed no other way to make up for the devastating loss of Grant to the Magic as a free agent in 94 in the quickest dismantling of a championship team. Through retirements, indecision and botched strategies, the team lost Grant, Williams, Bill Cartwright John Paxson and B.J. Armstrong without getting anything in return. The mistakes were compounded when Harper was a bust And the previously successful formula was not working.

A power forward had been drafted every year for the last five years without measurable success. Such stopgaps as Krystkowiak were signed. But nothing worked.

So with the return of Jordan from retirement last March, and without help from the draft or free agency, the Bulls turned to Rodman in a cheap deal for Perdue, their unwanted center. This season will be spent turning to Jordan for help in doing what no one could since the start of the body painting and piercing: control Rodman and make him a productive teammate rather than a destructive force.