Rodman fearful NBA return will be blocked

LONDON: Dennis Rodman fears his plans to make an unlikely return to the NBA will be blocked by officials and admits he could yet return to Britain in a bid to continue his basketball comeback.

The 44-year-old forward, whose last NBA game was with the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, claimed to have been offered try-outs by the Toronto Raptors and Portland Trail Blazers in his efforts to become the oldest player to ever appear in the elite American league.

However, Rodman fears NBA commissioner David Stern will do his best to block a return to top- flight American basketball and admits he may be forced to look elsewhere.

Rodman, who completed his latest, two-game stint, in the British Basketball League with four points and nine rebounds for the Brighton Bears in Wednesday's 103-84 road win over the London Towers, proved a popular figure with UK fans after starring in the British television show "Celebrity Big Brother."

"I need to stay somewhere for a long time and that could be Brighton, Portland, wherever," Rodman said prior to returning to the United States.

"Germany wants me, Turkey wants me, a lot of people want me, but I want my next move to be a long-term thing.

"I don't know if Brighton want to bring me back. My schedule is really busy, but I would be happy to come back and experience the BBL for a longer time.

"I am serious about a full-time return. I will be training five days a week and hopefully give it a shot somewhere."

He said Portland and Toronto both want to give him a try-out.

"Just me being on the floor or on the bench will bring in the crowds. Give me that 10 million dollars," he said.

"I would be the first guy to play in the NBA at 45, but I can do it. Charles Barkley is talking about a comeback, but the guy would have to lose 200lbs to stand a chance."

Rodman believes Stern will attempt to block his latest return but is ready for a fight with the man responsible for the world's richest basketball league.

"We don't get on," he added. "The reason I haven't been back in the last two years is because of him and the fact that he's blocked my comeback so many times.

"I was supposed to go to the New York Knicks camp last summer, but he blocked it. I was supposed to go to Denver after that but he blocked it.

"For some reason, he doesn't want me back in the NBA and maybe he feels it will be all 'Dennis, Dennis, Dennis'. Well, wasn't it all Michael (Jordan), Michael, Michael in the past?"

Rodman emphasized the fact that he has the best winning percentage of any NBA player and insisted age was no barrier to improving that record.

"I've got five NBA rings and a couple of ABA rings, but I also have the highest winning percentage of any player in the league's history," he added. "Not a lot of people know that.

"Michael Jordan doesn't have that record, Larry Bird doesn't have that record and Bill Russell doesn't have that record. But I do. I have that."

Rodman, speaking in an interview Thursday with Sky Sports, also entered the debate currently raging in the NBA as to whether LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant is on a par with the legendary Jordan.

Rodman, who won three of his five NBA championships as a team- mate of Jordan at the Chicago Bulls, had no doubt who was the better player.

"I call him 'God,'" said Rodman of Jordan. "As for his ability to do what he's done. People compare Kobe to Michael. There is no comparison. His beauty, if you just watch his body, his beauty of the game of basketball, he simplifies like I said (Mikhail) Baryshnikov, as a dancer, as an athlete, a high-flyer."

Source: China Daily