USWNT forward Trinity Rodman rips dad Dennis as ‘not a dad’

On By Littum

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US women’s national team star Trinity Rodman opened up about his relationship with his father and criticized Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman for not being present in her life.

In an interview about Call her dad podcast released Wednesday, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist accused the former Chicago Bulls legend of being an erratic factor throughout her youth and up to the present day. Per Washington Spirit forward — who had previously characterized her relationship with her father as strained — the five-time NBA champion would barely see her children a handful of times in a given year, then insist on being in control.

“He’s not a father. Maybe by blood, but nothing else,” the 22-year-old said of one of basketball’s biggest names from the 1990s. “We got enough money to pay rent, just barely. And then we were just, I don’t even know how we made it work, but somehow we made it happen.”

Here’s what you need to know about Trinity Rodman’s comments about her relationship with her father.

Trinity Rodman: ‘We lived in a car’

Dennis Rodman became one of the NBA’s biggest stars and played a key role on Chicago Bulls “three-peat” team built around Michael Jordan. Between Rodman’s rebounding prowess — the New Jersey native led the league in rebounding for seven straight seasons and is considered one of the all-time greats in the category — and his quirky personality, “The Worm” had a big NBA contract, endorsements and even branched out to act.

According to his daughter, who just helped the Washington Spirit to this year’s NWSL championship final, that money did not go to support his children.

“We had (a Ford) Expedition and we kind of lived in it a little bit,” Rodman explained. “I think it was when we were on the … Ensign at Newport Harbor. So we were still in Newport (Beach). So imagine living in a car, going to a rich (high) school. It is the weirdest thing but we lived in a car but then we could afford to stay in a motel for a bit so we kind of went back and forth on what nights we could pay for, how many nights we could pay for.

Rodman said that over the years, Dennis would drop in “one, two, three, four times a year” and that those moments often involved a clash over whether her father was doing enough to look after the family financially.

“At least that’s all the fight (between her parents) was ever about in front of us. It was just the money part and helping your kids,” 2024 explained NWSL Best 11 forward. “My dad, he likes to be in control. So he’d take us shopping, get us phones, do this, do that. ‘Oh, I’m taking you and your brother shopping,’ and me and my brother is like, ‘We don’t want to shop!’ We just want money to go in and out after school with our friends.’ So it was like, he wouldn’t give us money to do it.

“He needed to be in control, to bring us groceries and swipe his own card. But if we asked, ‘Hey, could we have $100 to go get food, go to Claire’s to get my ears?’ Just little things like that, he said, ‘No, you’re using me’.”

Trinity Rodman on Dennis Rodman: ‘I don’t know where he is’

Before USWNT forward, life as Dennis Rodman’s daughter has been complicated. Trinity showed up to Washington Spirit games wearing shirts reminiscent of some of her father’s most infamous looks, but noted in the interview that she’s had to be very conscious of what she does and doesn’t discuss when he shows up .

“I think with the dad situation — in terms of what I’ve filtered and what I’ve talked about — I feel like me and my brother have been very generous with the way we’ve talked about it and very unselfish,” Rodman explained. “I think we never want to make him look bad, and that’s at the expense of kind of holding on to a lot and a lot of issues that we’ve been through and like trauma in itself.

“I just feel like I’ve been in a place where I’ve gone through interviews where people say, ‘Is your dad there? What’s your dad feeling?’ And I feel like I’ve tried to make it clear that I don’t know how he feels. So for my own sanity, it frustrates me.”