Rodman Promises He’s Back and He Won’t Leave Again

ORLANDO, Fla. —  The Wizard of Odd materialized in the Magic Kingdom, rejoining the Lakers, renewing his brand of bump-and-grind basketball and, for once, responding to questions.

Dennis Rodman, here today. . . . where tomorrow?

“Oh, I’m here [with the Lakers] for the rest of the season,” said Rodman, who arrived in Orlando about 2 a.m. Sunday and grabbed eight rebounds in 23 minutes against the Magic after taking an eight-day paid leave of absence.

“I’ve used up my hall pass.”

So he is absent no longer, apparently having settled his personal problems with several trips to the Las Vegas craps tables and the support of his wife, Carmen Electra.

“I’m back. I’m back. People have to understand that you can’t control Dennis Rodman, he has to make his own decisions,” Rodman said after the game in a rare interview session.

“And I’ve been doing it for the last five or six years, I have to get away. Kind of clear my head and make sure this is the right thing for me to come out and do. . . .

“Everything’s fine. All you guys are going to guess, is it this, that, personal problems, marriage? And it has nothing to do with that. I just had to get away.

“Because I didn’t know if I really wanted to play basketball. Even though we won 10 games in a row. . . . that still doesn’t mean it’s time for me to go out there and play.”

Though he turned in a less-than-average statistical performance, Coach Kurt Rambis and others credited Rodman for helping infuse intensity in their stirring second-half performance.

The Lakers, who came back from a 24-point deficit to beat the Magic on Sunday, are 10-0 with Rodman, and 8-9 without him.

Rodman said that the Lakers fined him $100 a day during his seven-day absence.

Most of the Laker players didn’t know for sure that Rodman had rejoined them until the Sunday morning meeting--and, holding to custom, hardly any spoke to him until they were on the floor during the game.

“I wasn’t expecting these guys to come up and shake my hand or kiss my . . . . or anything like that,” Rodman said. “I expected the team to kind of fall back as if nothing happened, so that’s what we did.”

Did Rodman think about apologizing to his teammates, who went 1-3 while he was gone?

“I didn’t have to do that,” Rodman said. “I won’t do that. My teammates, they know I’m going to go out there and give them my best.”

Said Shaquille O’Neal: “We all said what we had to say to him, and he said he’s going to be back the rest of the year.

“He said he had some personal problems. You never really know what that is, but you just have to respect the guy, and our organization was gracious enough to let him go to Vegas and gamble.”

Rambis said that if any Laker resents Rodman, he hasn’t heard about it, and that it would be useless to feel that emotion anyway.

“It doesn’t do us any good to harbor ill feelings or resentment or anything like that,” Rambis said. “That’s not going to be helpful to them and it’s not going to be helpful to the team or the situation.”

Rodman said he thought about not coming back to the Lakers at all--and that it was the urging of his wife that convinced him to return.

“Carmen told me. . . . ‘Dennis, go out there, suck it up and do it, just do it. I know you love the game, just go out there and do it,’ ” Rodman said.

“This game ain’t worth that much for me to lose who I am. So I could’ve stayed out and probably would’ve got kicked out of the state of California. But it don’t matter. I’ve got to keep my head and my life together.”

Rodman spoke with NBC before the game and also met with Magic Coach Chuck Daly, who expressed concern for his former player. Rodman said he does not need professional help.

“I saw a psychiatrist the last two or three years. I think that I know what I’m doing,” he said.

So in conclusion, Dennis, can you explain why this all had to happen exactly this weird way?

“I’m different,” Rodman said with a smile. “I’m different--I do it my way.”