Dennis Rodman's Net Worth is Fitting for the Rebound King
What does it take to be the highest net worth athlete? Whatever it is, poor boy Dennis Rodman does not have it. When learning about the net worth of celebrity sports stars it is quite common to learn that they have many millions, sometimes even hundreds of millions. Dennis Rodman’s net worth should be in this league.
Drum roll, please. Dennis Rodman’s net worth is about $500,000. What? Not $500 million? Only half a million? Oh, my goodness that is embarrassing. How in the green-purple-orange-striped hair could something like this happen? The owner of a hair salon, where he gets his hair dyed, is probably worth more than that.
Rodman is just as well-known as Ronald Macdonald, and just as colorful. Famous people are supposed to be mega-rich. We need to take a deep dive into the world of Rodman to learn what happened. But first, we are going to rub a little salt in the wounds caused by Rodman’s nearly empty wallet and the unremarkable sum of Dennis Rodman’s net worth.
The Richest Athletes In the World
This list will make Dennis Rodman squirm. Dennis Rodman’s net worth is something any of these other richest athletes could give as a donation to charity. All of them gave more than the measly amount of Dennis Rodman’s net worth to a favorite cause. It is embarrassing to get media attention for a donation to a charity of less than one million dollars. One million dollars is the cost of a modest middle-class home in the Los Angeles area. For $500,000, the equivalent of Dennis Rodman’s net worth, you cannot even buy a good-sized empty lot in a nice part of town. No Beverly Hills estate for Rodman.
How Many Rodmans Is It?
Here is a countdown of some of the world’s richest athletes. For fun, we are also going to also calculate their net worth in our made-up virtual currency called Rodmans, with one Rodman equal to Dennis Rodman’s net worth of $500,000.
"The Great One" National Hockey League player Wayne Gretzky's net worth is $250 million or 500 Rodmans.
Basketball player Grant Hill's net worth is $250 million or 500 Rodmans.
Golfer Gary Player’s net worth is $250 million or 500 Rodmans.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson played football for the University of Miami, became a WWE wrestling champ, and then a movie star. His net worth is $800 million or 1600 Rodmans.
Racecar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s net worth is $300 million or 600 Rodmans.
Heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman had a good financial sense, after retiring from boxing, to sell a barbecue grill with infomercials. His net worth is $300 million or 600 Rodmans.
Golfer Greg Norman endorsed a cool line of hats, with a shark logo on them, to amass a net worth of $400 million or 800 Rodmans.
Golfer Jack Nicklaus put his name on his balls (the ones he uses to play golf, not to win at golf) and he created a net worth of $400 million or 800 Rodmans.
Baseball player Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez batted his way with the fourth-most home runs ever, to score a net worth of $350 million or 700 Rodmans.
Basketball player Vinnie Johnson was called “the microwave” for getting so hot so fast when playing the sport. He cooked up a net worth of $500 million or 1000 Rodmans.
Soccer player Lionel Messi ran up and down the field to his goal of a net worth of $620 million or 1240 Rodmans.
Basketball player Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal’s net worth is $450 million or 900 Rodmans.
Rodman balls better than manages money. Go higher with the Wealthry Store.
Basketball player LeBron James slam-dunked his way to a net worth of $600 million or 1200 Rodmans.
Soccer player and now team owner David Beckham’s net worth is $450 million or 900 Rodmans.
Tennis player Roger Federer has a net worth of $550 million or 1100 Rodmans helped by a 10-year deal worth $300 million with the Uniqlo clothing brand.
Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has a net worth of $500 million or 1000 Rodmans and is still earning money for his lifetime deal with Nike that is worth up to $1 billion.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. with his perfect record of 50 wins and zero losses has a net worth of $450 million or 900 Rodmans.
Football player Roger Staubach captured a ton of real estate to build a net worth of $600 million or 1,200 Rodmans.
Basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson did not even let the diagnosis of being HIV positive stop him from creating his net worth of $600 million or 1,200 Rodmans.
Racecar driver Michael Schumacher made left turns at high speeds until he had a net worth of $800 million or 1,200 Rodmans.
Golfer Tiger Woods almost blew it all when his extra-marital affairs caused him to get divorced in 2009. Then, he made the greatest comeback ever to win the 2019 Masters. He has a net worth now of $800 million or 1,600 Rodmans.
Basketball player Michael Jordan is in the billionaire class with a net worth of $1.9 billion, which is equal to 3,800 Rodmans.
Over-achiever, Ion Tiriac, was an Olympic hockey player on the Romanian team. Then, he had a career as a professional tennis player, which got him in the Tennis Hall of Fame with 23 titles during his tennis career. Then, after the fall of the USSR, he started Romania’s first commercial bank. He now has about $2 billion or 4,000 Rodmans.
If we add up all the Rodmans of the two dozen world’s richest athletes we get 26,710 Rodmans. That is enough, in a Matrix film style of using cloned Rodmans, to fill up a small stadium with Rodmans!
NBA Basketball All-Star Players Are Supposed To Be Rich
Nearly one-third of the world's richest athletes on this list are basketball players. Many of the basketball players on this list were in games that Rodman played in, including the games when Rodman was on the All-Star teams in 1990 and 1992, during the time he played for the Detroit Pistons.
It is not for lack of fame or political connections that Rodman is dirt poor. Ask any kid, at any basketball playground in America, if they know who Dennis Rodman is. Most will know his name. Even people who are not basketball fans know about Rodman because of his very public and strange antics.
The Bromance With Kim Fatty
This is where the strange, changes into the truly bizarre and how Rodman’s friendships and his ability to deal with megalomaniacal psychopaths might have helped avert nuclear war.
The Chairman of the Workers' Party, who is also the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, the First Chairman of the National Defense Commission, and the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, known more simply by his detractors as “Kim Fatty,” is friends with Dennis Rodman.
Rodman goes to North Korea at a time when visiting that country is difficult and visas are rarely granted by the guy who can eat a banana sideways, the Dear Leader Kim Fatty.
Image source: Business Insider
The Fourth Stooge
We know Kim Fatty likes watching professional NBA basketball. We suspect that Rodman does not go to North Korea just because he likes Kim’s haircut, even though another one of Kim’s official North Korean governmental titles is the “Dear Leader, Who is a Perfect Incarnation of the Appearance that a Leader Should Have.”
No, it is probably not just Kim’s bowl-shaped haircut, which reminds me of one of the Three Stooges that appeals to Rodman, it is most likely that Rodman goes to North Korea for the kind bud, the wacky tobacky, the ganja, the Mary Jane, also known as marijuana or cannabis, which is readily available and legal to smoke in North Korea.
Let's Get High, So High
North Korea may be a very poor country but even a grandma there can smoke weed. The trouble with this is that after they all get high from puffing away and goose-stepping in the central square of the capital to worship the “Ever-Victorious, Iron-Willed Commander” who is the “Great Sun of The Nation” and a “World Leader of The 21st Century,” there is no place for grandma to go, to get enough to eat to kill the raging case of munchies from all the pot smoking. These poor people in North Korea are literally starving to death. Complain in North Korea and you, and all your family, are sent to a city-sized concentration camp, where there is even less food to eat.
Rodman does not have to worry about any of this on his visits to North Korea because Kim Fatty is always surrounded by food. There are so many photos of Kim Fatty inspecting his farms, his food processing plants, and having lavish meals. These are his second most favorite things to do after inspecting his nuclear bombs as the “Glorious General, Who Descended From Heaven.”
Like a Rocket Man
When Kim Fatty was upset that people were calling him things that were not on the official list of his more than 50 titles, he fired off missiles and threatened to use his nuclear bombs. Of all the people in the world, Rodman was the only one who seemed to be able to calm down the lunatic leaders, both fatties, who were ready to bomb the fat out of each other. After the name-calling stopped, they fell in love and the nuclear threat was put on pause, for now.
Rodman proudly calls himself a private citizen diplomat. We are happy it worked for the time being. However, having the fate of the world resting on the ability of one crazy Rodman to calm down other crazy men is not very confidence-building for the long-term.
Rodman’s last trip to North Korea was sponsored by a cannabis cryptocurrency called Potcoin. Hopefully, Rodman can get more Potcoins out of the deal and then Dennis Rodman’s net worth may get back up to a respectable level. Pass the joint. Cannabis is a $250 billion annual industry. Show us some money Rodman!
Janitor Cleans Up
In the early years, before Dennis Rodman’s net worth was even a dollar to the positive, Rodman was a janitor and that was what he believed was his fate in life. He had humble beginnings, as the oldest son of his father’s 28 children and as one of his mother’s 19 children, making him one of 47 related siblings by Rodman’s count.
He was born on May 13, 1961. Rodman was extremely shy as a young child. He had an unhappy childhood. When he was very young, his father left and moved to the Philippines. He did not see his father for over 40 years until he finally saw him again in 2012. The meeting was not important to Rodman. Rodman says that he never missed his father. He always felt like he never had a father so there was nothing to miss. All his younger life was spent in the company of an entirely-female household, with two older sisters and his mother, which probably explains Rodman’s interest in occasionally dressing up in women’s clothing. Rodman promoted his book, entitled "Bad As I Want To Be," by putting on a wedding dress.
Boy Can't Shoot, Even a Layup
When Rodman was in high school, he was a terrible basketball player, barely making the team, sitting out the games mostly on the bench, and unable to make a layup shot. He did not make the football team. At only five feet, six inches tall he was too short to play either sport well. He did not hit his growth spurt from puberty until after graduating from high school. His sisters played women’s college basketball. Even they were bigger than he was. All they did was make fun of him.
It did not look like a sports career would be possible for him, so he became a janitor at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport after graduating from high school. Then, to his surprise, he started to grow and continue to grow until he reached the height of six feet, seven inches. He grew over a foot within a year. He was no longer too small to play basketball.
Too Tall To Fail
Rodman played college basketball and became a powerhouse in rebounding and defensive play. He was picked up to play for the Detroit Pistons in 1986 and played for them until 1993. He played for the San Antonio Spurs (1993–1995), the Chicago Bulls (1995–1998), the Los Angeles Lakers (1999), and the Dallas Mavericks (2000). Rodman is a ive-time NBA champion and in the Basketball Hall of Fame. His nicknames are “The Worm, “Dennis the Menace,” and “Rodzilla.” He continued to play for other lesser teams until 2006.
At one point in his basketball career, he was making $29 million per year and many millions more from sponsorships and endorsements. He had lead roles in the films Double Team (released in 1997) and Simon Sez (released in 1999). Both films flopped. He dated the singer, Madonna, who wanted to have a baby with him. He briefly married Carmen Electra who accused him of being physically abusive. He also married Annie Bakes and Michelle Moyer. Rodman has a total of three children, but none with Madonna.
By 2012, he was completely broke, over $1 million in debt, and owed $800,000 in unpaid child-support to an ex-wife.
Conclusion — What Happened to Dennis Rodman’s Net Worth?
Divorce settlements took much of Dennis Rodman’s net worth. He also paid heavy fines for his bad-boy style of playing basketball. He had huge legal expenses for his many run-ins with the police and made bad investments that lost money. Then, there is, of course, his drug habit.
From 1999 to 2019 he has continued to have trouble related to excessive drug and alcohol use. He has been arrested many times for drunk driving, assault, driving without a license, and domestic violence. He certainly lives up to his “bad boy” image, even now that he is almost in his sixties.