'For Better or Worse' Shows Complexities Behind Dennis Rodman

Photo: ESPN

by Philip Price
I'm not a psychologist, but it's difficult to imagine THE Dennis Rodman as a 59-year old man at all nonetheless one who remains as lost as he's ever been. I was a huge NBA fan in the mid-‘90s and only recall Rodman as being the most confident human being I'd ever seen walk the planet. Granted, I lived in Smalltown, USA growing up and we didn't see much beyond the gas station grocery stores and local catfish restaurants, but with “Rodman: For Better or Worse” it quickly becomes apparent that even at the height of his fame, Rodman didn't know who he was, he just knew what he liked and did whatever he could to preserve that feeling of being the center of attention; he did whatever he could to preserve affection even if there were no real feelings of care behind it. In seeing the full, complex story of Rodman through the eyes of this older, more seasoned, but still incredibly damaged man what is most startling about the contradiction between Rodman's public persona and who he genuinely seems to be as a human is that at 59 he still hasn't found a way to reconcile the two.
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"But when Dennis had graduated high school he was 5'9 and hadn't played a full season of organized basketball in his life. So, what am I missing? In a year and a half span after graduating high school, Dennis Rodman would grow nearly a foot."

No disrespect to Michael Oher, but if we're being honest, I would have much rather seen “The Blind Side” based on Rodman's life and been delivered said narrative via 1980s Bokchito, Okla. as opposed to early-2000s Memphis, Tenn. I'm just sayin' - if you thought Leigh Anne Tuohy was questionable - wait until you meet Pat Rich. The fact one can write the sentence, "At the most tender and pure stage of his life, the 22-year old college basketball star found comfort and solace in a white family and their 13-year old son," then it would only seem inevitable that once Rodman decided to truly let his arrested development tendencies shine that we would get sentences such as, "A summit between the U.S. President and the leader of North Korea might not have happened without Dennis Rodman." That's a true statement. It doesn't make sense, but it does speak to how Rodman became a victim of his own facade.

"When only the destination remains, what's left? Whatever was desperately pursued along the way ... was it found?"

There is undoubtedly a tragedy to the life of Rodman and it's hard not to come out the other side of ‘For Better or Worse’ not feeling bad for the guy despite the fact he's left his children with the same abandonment issues his mother left him with. It's difficult not to wonder how much timing had to do with who Rodman became and, if in today's society, would he have felt the need to act out as much as he did in the mid-‘90s or would there be more of an understanding around his mental health? More people around him who cared more about his well-being and how he managed himself than they were with how they could enhance their own well-being. The documentary portrays Rodman as a gentle soul not ready for this cruel world; a naive young man who mistook the family he felt he'd made in Detroit for the first real support system he'd had in his life only to eventually have to come to terms with the fact this was a business and that family would seemingly always be nothing but another thing that consistently turned its back on him. Rodman has never really, completely grown up and for a number of justifiable reasons, but as one watches this man who is nearing 60 recount his life in a condensed fashion it becomes more and more clear that all Rodman desired was acceptance, but that he's always been so frightened at the idea of actually receiving it that he would push every button in an attempt to make it as difficult as possible to accept him completely.

"The most valuable thing in the world is a voice and he had one."

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