Dennis Rodman is sure to come up in any sports discussion involving NBA legends. Despite being one of the most decorated basketball players in the world, he struggled with drugs, depression, and suicidal thoughts during his career, even attempting suicide once.
During the “Beyond The Rim” panel during the 2022 REVOLT Summit x AT&T last month, Rodman spoke with Brandon Marshall about how he overcame his attempt at suicide in 1993 and why he wants to do better for himself and his family. When asked how he said, “That’s a tough one. I really [don’t] know [because] I was so green behind the ears, right?” he said through tears.
In explaining how his struggle with mental health began, Rodman talked about how he learned of his mother’s declining health four months into her being in a coma. “So last year, I was vacationing with some girl, and I got a phone call from [a] hospital in Dallas, and [they said,] ‘Your mother [has been] in a coma for four months. Should we pull the plug?’ I didn’t know she was in the f**king hospital,” he expressed. “They called me out of the blue. So I got on a plane [and] I flew to Dallas. And as I am going into the hospital — the ER — the doctors came out and said [to me], ‘Dennis, you know what? She opened her eyes.’ I said, ‘What?’ She opened her f**king eyes, man. I mean, after four months, I thought they said they wanted me to come and pull the plug. And my sister [sat] there for four months, every day, and said she ‘didn’t want to do it.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to do it.'”
He continued, “I mean, I didn’t get along with my mother at all. I resented my mother when she kicked me out at 17 years old. I lived on the streets for f**king four and a half years. The woman didn’t even give a damn about me.”
Rodman questioned whether he was willing to fail at life or get his act together. “I want to die right. I want to die humble and cool as hell,” he declared. “But I got heart problems [and] I caused it on myself. I caused all of this s**t [that] I’m going through on my own. No one to help me do this s**t — this [is] me [and I] got [to] cure what I got going on.”
The 61-year-old spoke to the audience directly: “But you know that shoulder that you always can lean on; please take advantage of that s**t. I think a lot of people here [can] understand what you’re going through. There’s someone beside you to say, ‘Hey, if you need someone to pray, we are here.'”
He added, “We didn’t have that back then. We didn’t have that support. So, I just love doing community stuff like this [and] giving back.”
You can watch a clip of Rodman’s “Beyond The Rim” panel at the 2022 REVOLT Summit down below: