The ongoing conversation of who the third best player in the history of the Chicago Bulls franchise is should involve Hall-of-Famer Dennis Rodman.
There is a clear top two that exists in the pecking order of the best player in history of the Chicago Bulls franchise. And those two players include all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan at the top, and then legendary forward Scottie Pippen right below him. But the waters start to muddy a bit after Jordan and Pippen to figure out who the third best player in the history of the Bulls franchise is.
But the Bulls team writer Chuck Swarsky gave his thoughts on the matter of who is the third best player in franchise history behind MJ and Pippen in his “Chuck’s Check In” from Aug. 17. Chuck gave his opinion that the Hall-of-Fame 6-foot-7 and 210 pound forward Dennis Rodman is the third best player in Bulls franchise history over the likes of point guard Derrick Rose, small forward Jimmy Butler, center Joakim Noah, Hall-of-Famer Jerry Sloan, big man Horace Grant, and forward Artis Gilmore.
Here’s more on what his piece had to say on this matter.
"Last week’s CCI question, “Who stands as the third best player in Bulls franchise history behind MJ/Scottie?”I received a ton of responses and while you may think it’s a lock for D. Rose, my tabulations revealed Dennis Rodman narrowly edged Rose out."
Rose was seemingly the second most popular answer to that question that Chuck received in his mailbag. But there are a lot of options he could’ve gone with here. Rodman surely has that championship pedigree as the third part of the superstar trio along with MJ and Pippen.
As far as the numbers and accolades go, it’s hard to argue that Rodman shouldn’t at least be in the top five. But he is also nowhere to be found in terms of the top 10 career leaders for the Bulls in any of the major all-encompassing metrics (i.e. player efficiency rating, box plus/minus rating, win shares, win shares per 48 minutes, value over replacement player rating, etc.).
If we’re going by those metrics, then it would likely have to go to someone like Butler, Rose, Gilmore, or Sloan. This is always a varying opinion that could spark some good conversation. Rodman was still one of the all-time great defenders and rebounders in the NBA, not just for the Bulls.
Rodman was a two-time NBA All-Star selection, five-time NBA Champion, eight-time All-Defensive Team selection, seven-time rebounding champ, two-time All-NBA selection, and two-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner. He spent three seasons playing for the Bulls, all of which they won a title.