Trinity Rodman on father Dennis Rodman: ‘He’s not a father’

Washington Spirit star forward Trinity Rodman was candid about her strained relationship with her father and five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman.

In a rare interview, Trinity sat down with Alex Cooper for her Call her dad podcastand opened up about how her father has been absent for most of her life and how she and her siblings have been affected by their father’s decisions.

The Olympic gold medal-winning soccer player has mostly avoided discussing Dennis’ role growing up, but said the interview, which aired Wednesday, was her “opportunity to kind of talk more — I don’t want to say negatively, but more realistically about it.”

“He’s a person. He’s not a father. Maybe by blood, but nothing else,” said Trinity, 22. Despite Dennis earning a reported salary of $27 million throughout his NBA career, per Sport racTrinity said she, her brother and mother had to live out of a car at one point.

“We had (a Ford) Expedition and we kind of lived in it a little bit,” she continued. “We tried to live with him, but he throws parties 24/7, he brings random bitches in. My mom wouldn’t – she was strong enough to handle it, because even to this day I still believe that my father has loved no one after my mother.”

She continued: “I think my mom just saw the situation: ‘We love each other. It’s not going to work. For my kids, I can’t have them see you treat me like this, embarrass me like this way and have the party scene all the time.”

Trinity said her mother, Michelle Moyer, ultimately chose what was best for her daughter and Trinity’s brother DJ. Trinity credited her mother for protecting her and her brother throughout their childhood.

Moyer filed for divorce in 2004, which was dissolved in 2012, and Trinity said at the time they saw their father “one, two, three, four times a year.”

“Before the divorce happened, my dad was actually helping money with regards to,” Trinity explained. “He actually wanted to give money to my mother and let us live life a bit, but when the divorce happened, it was just like: ‘Fuck you guys.’

“I think he’s an extremely selfish person,” she said. “I think everything has always been about him.”

At 18, Trinity was drafted by the Washington Spirit in 2021 and was at the time the youngest player to be drafted into the National Women’s Soccer League. In a moment remembered by the media, Dennis appeared at the Spirit’s playoff quarterfinal game against North Carolina announced the Courage.

“When he showed up to my game, I was like so mad,” recalled Trinity, who said that before he showed up, she hadn’t seen or heard from him in months. “I started crying on the pitch. So I try to play football and I cry.”

Washington defeated North Carolina and would go on to win the NWSL title, but Trinity said his sudden appearance brought mixed feelings.

“I was so mad. I was like, ‘You took this happy moment away from me. You screwed my head again,'” she said. “I walk over there mad, like, ‘Fuck you.’ I walk over there, he grabs my head and I just start howling in his arms like it’s a father-daughter (moment).

The embrace between her and her father went viral across social media and news platforms. Trinity shared a Instagram postswriting in the caption: “We don’t have the best relationship but at the end of the day he’s human, I’m human… he’s my daddy and I’m his little girl who will never change. I will improve and look forward every day, as I hope he does.”

But after that game, Trinity said it was “radio silence.”

“I didn’t see him until this year,” she told Cooper. “Silly me because I thought it was going to be some kind of new spark. It was me every single time. He’d come around and I’d be like, ‘Okay, here we go again. We’re starting something. He’ll be around .’ Boom, months and months and months this time it was years.”

She said: “I think after that is when I lost hope of ever getting him back.”

Although her relationship with her father remains strained, Trinity said she still picks up the phone for her “conscience.”

“If something happens, God forbid, I want to know that I did it or if he needed to hear my voice before something happens,” she said. “That’s why I pick up the phone, not for me.”