Picasso In The Paint -- Pistons' Rodman Leads Rebounding Renaissance In NBA

Gravity-bound men once looked upon snaring errant shots as more than mundane. Though the appeal eventually faded like the last pair of bell-bottoms, it recently has been resurrected. Rebounding, which seemed to go out with the lava lamp and black-light poster, is on the rebound as an art form.

And, for this, we have Dennis Rodman, Detroit's Picasso in the paint, to thank.

After Rodman ripped down 34 rebounds against Indiana last week, Pacer Coach Bob Hill called him "a freak of nature."

New York assistant Paul Silas, erstwhile chairman of the boards while with Phoenix, Boston and Seattle, calls him "a throwback to the kind of specialist we used to have a lot of in the NBA."

"With Rodman coming on, he's kind of transformed rebounding back into an art again - where players are respected in that role," Silas said. "As a result, I think you'll see more players concentrating on that. Those guys will be making the money for what they do, just like the scorers do now."

Rodman as revolutionary?

Last season, among those with the league-minimum 70 games or 800 rebounds, 10 players averaged 10 or more rebounds a game. The year before, there were just nine. The year before that, only seven.

This season, 16 players are averaging in double figures, the most in 17 years. And Rodman's average of 18.9, if maintained, will be the highest since the Big Dipper, Wilt Chamberlain, ladled 19.2 a game 20 years ago.

Clearly, the NBA is enjoying a rebounding renaissance. And, just as clearly, the guy known to his fans as Worm is leading it. Atlanta's Kevin Willis is averaging 16.5 rebounds and still trails Rodman by more than three a game.

"Rodman has defied the norm," said Michael Cage, one of the Sonics facing the task of keeping the Piston forward off the boards tonight at the Coliseum. "Dennis Rodman is doing a Dennis Rodman. He's not doing a Wes Unseld, or a Michael Cage or a Hakeem Olajuwon or a Charles Oakley. You can't compare notes with Rodman."

Rodman said, "It's not like I'm trying to prove a point that I'm the best rebounder who ever lived, because I'm not. I guess this is just my time. I never thought I'd make my mark doing this. When I started out, all I worried about was helping a team win a championship and just making it in the league."

He wouldn't have had a problem 20 years ago. Rodman's rebounding roots trace back to the 1971-72 season, the NBA's high-water mark for rebounders.

That year, 25 players had double-figure averages, the most in league history. Philadelphia's Bill Bridges averaged 13.5, which would have led the NBA in six of the past eight seasons, but couldn't crack the league's top 10 that season.

Back then, the league abounded with limited-leaping rebounding specialists such as Bridges, Silas, Baltimore's Unseld and Golden State's Clyde Lee. Unable to carve their niches with more-visible offense, they developed the gift of grab.

"In those days, you had to have a way to survive," Silas said. "And, if you were a good boardsman, you were considered a very big piece of the puzzle."

Maurice Lucas, the last of the classic enforcer breed, proved to be the bridge between generations. When he jumped from the ABA in 1976, he added scoring to the old-line practices of intimidation and rebounding. Still, during his time, Lucas found the latter skills beginning to lose their luster.

"That was the dirt job," Lucas says of rebounding. "It didn't get top pay, and it didn't get top recognition."

In 1987-88, a thunderous duel between Cage, then with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Chicago's Charles Oakley marked a shift back to the rebounding specialist. During the final day of that season, Cage snared 30 against Seattle to top Oakley, who had hauled down 35 two nights earlier, for the league crown.

Cage, who averaged 14.5 points, became the fifth-lowest scorer to win the rebounding title. Rodman, 30, is constructing a high rise on Cage's foundation.

Though a negligible offensive threat, Rodman has been named to two NBA all-star teams on the basis of his defense and rebounding. Averaging 9.5 points, he will be the lowest-scoring rebounding champion in NBA history.

He is averaging more than seven rebounds per game better than last season, when he had a career-high 12.5. He has snared 20 or more in half of his 62 games this season.

"It's kind of weird what's going on," Rodman said. "I can't really explain it. I'm just more active. That's what was given to me to do. I have to do what I'm doing now for us to win."

As Piston Coach Chuck Daly and the rest of the NBA has learned, Rodman takes his instructions more literally than most. Ask him to run through a wall, and he's likely to tumble the whole building. Last season, he grabbed a rebound about every three minutes; this year, it's one about every two minutes - even though his playing load is heavier, which should make him more tired.

Adding an exclamation point to Rodman's deeds is his size. Though listed at 6 feet 8, he weighs only 210 pounds - hardly the kind of freight expected aboard a glass-pounder. But he may be the first to fully exploit changes in the game that allow players of his dimension to carry their weight around the boards.

"I don't think you'd see him jumping over guys' backs like he does now," Lucas said, projecting Rodman back to an earlier era. "Back then, you had those big centers crowding the lane, and . . . they'd slap guys down to the ground."

But the NBA plainly is a more athletic league, with emphasis shifting steadily from the post to the rest of the court. The lane is less congested with head-knocking goliaths. Recent efforts to eliminate fights has further cleared the battle under the basket.

A big assist also is credited to the ever-prescient John Wooden. Armed with superior athletes in the '60s and '70s, the then-UCLA coach began emphasizing the pursuit of errant shots. Instead of blocking out an opponent, beat him to the ball with quickness and leaping ability.

"I box out every now and then," Rodman said. "But I'm not strong enough to just hold a guy out. Plus, the game's changed and players don't box out as much. Players are relying more on athletic ability and jumping ability."

The death of the block-out has benefited offensive rebounders the most because players are freer to swoop into open spaces. And this is where Rodman has made his living. More than a third of his rebounds have come at the offensive end this season.

In an odd way, Rodman's limited offensive prowess also works to his advantage.

"Rodman is not a guy you're going to guard tight defensively, because he's not going to score," said Nate Thurmond, the NBA's sixth all-time leading rebounder. "On Detroit, Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas are the players you're going to double-team.

"So when the defense is spread or double-teaming, Rodman is free to go straight to the boards. Where else would he go? Don't get me wrong. Being a former rebounder, I hold what he's doing in amazement. I just think you have to remember there are some extenuating circumstances."

Still, that he is head and shoulders above his contemporaries suggests Rodman is not just an unwitting beneficiary of changes in the game.

"I study angles all the time," Rodman explained. "I can look at a ball in flight and know where it's going to go. If you watch me, I'm always in one position and the ball usually comes right to me."

Rodman probably oversimplifies the situation. The characteristics he shares with boardsmen of all eras is a relentlessness and passion for rebounding.

"Teams have tried everything," he said. "People are holding me, doing everything they can to keep me off the glass. Teams have put their meanest guys and their biggest guys on me. I just try to keep going, keep going. If a guy's going to beat me, he's going to have to outwork me. And I figure he's going to tire out before I do."

So far, his has been a marathon against history, and only the NBA's earliest birds have managed to catch the indefatigable Worm.

DIFFERENT STROKES

The NBA's high-water mark for rebounding was 20 years ago. This season rivals it, even though there are an average of 11.6 fewer available rebounds per game. A typical contest, then and now:

SEASON FGA FG% REB.

1971-72 191 45.4 104.3 1991-92 175 47.0 92.7

(FIGURES ARE COMBINED AVERAGES PER GAME)