Re: Jordan and Rodman...the fact that they didn't like each other before becoming teammates was well-documented, basically because Dennis was the only guy in the entire NBA who could get Michael into foul trouble. MJ would get disgusted when Dennis would win Defensive Player of the Year or All-Defensive Team honors because "that's not defense, that's flopping."

Michael was against the signing of Rodman because he saw him as a head case(Michael also refused to play with guys who used drugs, and Dennis was thought to be one). After the infamous headbutting the ref incident, Michael blasted Dennis in the papers. That night, Dennis called Michael to apologize and try to bury the hatchet. From this point on it appeared that the two had a working relationship and respect between one another, and outside of that overblown incident where he kicked the cameraman(who presented himself as an innocent bystander, and a couple weeks later got arrested for beating his girlfriend [yuh huh] ), Dennis was on his best behavior. Proof: he played 80 of 82 games his last year in Chicago. If you don't accept that in this one case Michael was actually a positive influence, the only difference between you and a Jordan Zombie is that you hate Michael rather than love him. I.e. you'd be letting your opinion blind you to facts.

You'd know the story between these two if you read Sam Smith's books on Michael Jordan. This isn't "Media Zombie" stuff. Again, these are books that got Smith a lot of hate mail because he presented Jordan as someone with many, many flaws that happened to be great at basketball.