Joakim Noah is playing like a Chicago Bulls legend right now, helping the Bulls to make a late surge up the playoff rankings. But the eccentric center would be the first to admit that he hasn't yet reached the levels of Jordan, Pippins and co. Nevertheless, in*a recent*Off The Court Live Chat,*Noah was asked which former Bulls star he most identified with at the moment. "Probably Dennis (Rodman),"*came his response. "A lot of people say Dennis. I have great respect for that guy because I know how selfless he was and all his teammates that played with him always said how much of a great teammate he was, that's the most important thing. "People always get caught up in all his extra off the court activities but they forget how resilient and how selfless he was as a player so that's why I have so much respect for Dennis Rodman."
With the Bulls, Rodman contributed only 5.2 points per game with a pretty awful TS% of .478. Stats can be really stupid.
The stats aren't stupid. He wasn't a very good player - he might have been if he actually practiced... He was the very best at one thing: rebounding. Being the very best at a positive aspect of the game is enough to be a huge contributor.
He was indeed a huge contributor to multiple NBA Championship teams. Therefore a great player playing the exact role for which he was needed. Yup. Stats are stupid. Actually, stats are stats. They measure what they measure. Its the application of stats to support an argument by extension that is too often stupid. Reducing an argument to a number or ranking lends false aurhority to a proposition. Paging Hollinger the Integer...please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone...
Some truth to this. Rodman didn't ignore scoring early in his career. He scored a bit and scored very efficiently. Then he decided to shun the skills and just go with his best talents.
