Ex-WCW President Encouraged Dennis Rodman To ‘Rough It Up’ With Karl Malone During NBA Finals
May 20, 2020, 11:32 AM
Dennis Rodman (R) of the Chicago Bulls gets wrapped up with Karl Malone (L) of the Utah Jazz 14 June during game six of the NBA Finals at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, UT. The Bulls won the game 87-86 to win their sixth NBA championship. (Photo by MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo by MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Former World Championship Wrestling president Eric Bischoff said that he encouraged Chicago Bulls big man Dennis Rodman to provoke Utah Jazz forward during the 1998 NBA Finals to build up a future wrestling match between the two players.
During the Finals, Rodman and Malone battled on the court to the point where a scuffle landed the two on the hardwood.
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Bischoff admitted he encouraged Rodman to mix it up with Malone.
“Now, what I said to Dennis – not to Karl – was, ‘Hey Dennis, if anything were to happen off-court while there’s a timeout, while there’s no gameplay. If you guys happen to rough it up a little bit at the sidelines or look like you’re going to and establish that intent,'” the former WCW president said of his conversation with Rodman. “‘So that the feud, if you will, between Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman is real, on a kind of a 360-degree basis, not just what happens on our television show, that wouldn’t piss me off at all.'”
Bischoff said that he only encouraged Rodman to provoke Malone only in a way that wouldn’t impact the outcome of the playoff game.
“It was kind of subtle, but clear, I guess,” Bischoff said. “I made sure with respect to my boss, Harvey Schiller at Turner Sports, and the NBA, I did it in a way to be a little bit hands-off and make sure it didn’t interrupt the gameplay.”
“As a wrestling producer, to be able to create a moment – however subtly I did that and communicated it — to be able to create a moment that played out on a platform so huge as the NBA playoffs was really satisfying,” Biscoffed continued.
The scuffle between Rodman and Malone was recently brought back up to the sporting world more than 20 years later due to ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary series featuring the Bulls’ championship runs during the 1990s.
Malone and the Jazz played Rodman and Bulls during back-to-back NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998.
WCW: Dennis Rodman vs. Karl Malone
After the NBA Finals, Rodman and Malone participated in WCW’s “Bash at the Beach” pay-per-view event in July 1998. The wrestling event was part of a tag-team match that featured Rodman paired with Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Malone teamed up with Diamond Dallas Page.
Rodman and Hogan defeated Malone and Page.
