The NBA regular season was just settling into a comfortable routine. Professional basketball’s moral shortcomings were momentarily overshadowed by all the murder and mayhem emerging from within the NFL, while the fans were enjoying the competitive action of some hot, young teams and a rising new generation of superstars. High time for Dennis Rodman and his daily dose of disruption to return from the shadows and remind us of what basketball is really all about!

Having burned his bridges with the Lakers last season, returning to play there under his former Bulls coach, Phil Jackson, was out of the question. But the desperate Dallas Mavericks dangled a contract tailored to Rodman’s every whim. With no practices, no workouts, none of the ties that bind ordinary players together into a team, Rodman is free to be himself in Dallas. And, true to form, he was ejected in only his second game with the Mavericks, then suspended and fined by the league for verbally abusing the officials and refusing to leave the court. Welcome back, Dennis!

Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

Whether you love him or hate him, Dennis Rodman won’t go away. Who is the man behind the hair-dye, and why does he intrigue us so? His natal  chart reveals a complicated personality with powerful, conflicting drives. Rodman was born on May 13, 1961, and has both the Sun and Moon in Taurus. Like many earthy Taureans, he is a stubborn and dedicated sensualist, gorging himself on all the pleasures of the material world.

It’s hard to overlook his vanity and Venusian fascination with self-adornment (the sign Taurus is “ruled” by the planet Venus), but scratch the surface and you find a successful businessman who knows how to pull in (and spend) the big bucks. Rodman was born with practical Capricorn  rising, and his Taurus Sun is in a harmonious trine aspect (a 120 degree angle) to his equally earthy Saturn in Capricorn, enabling him to profitably channel his ambition and ascend to the top of his chosen profession.

Hiding in Plain Sight

What he does at the top is another story, because with Neptune in Scorpio  on his Midheaven (the cusp or beginning of the Tenth House), his public image is a confusing enigma. Seductive and daringly sexual, he’s a multi-hued butterfly who delights in revealing what most of us prefer to keep secret. And sometimes he’s just drunk.

The Midheaven is such a public part of the birth chart, marking the point of the Sun's highest culmination in his daily path across the sky, that any planets placed there tend to manifest markedly in an individual's career or social standing. In Rodman's case, perhaps the illusive and transpersonal Neptune serves as a projection screen for the fantasies of the masses, while the "real" Rodman hides in public behind his unique masquerade.

Struggles with Authority

However, the single most important factor in his chart, is that disruptive square between his Taurus Sun in the Fourth House and his Uranus in Leo in the very public Seventh House. This square keeps him in constant contention with authority. Uranus in Leo loves to act out its own unique freedom, and in that stressful combination with the Sun, the ego is defined by rebellion, and must assert itself against any perceived restraints. Dennis loves to test the limits, often just for the sheer, adolescent fun of shocking and rocking the status quo.

Not a Flamboyant Player

The funny thing is, for all his radical pose, Rodman plays a very conservative, even boring game. He doesn’t dunk or run up the score. In fact, he rarely scores at all, preferring to focus on his Taurean specialty—rebounding. When the ball comes off the backboard, he grabs it, wordlessly declaring, “It’s mine” and he does it better than anyone else in the league. It’s all about possession, a Taurus trait. This highly intuitive sense of applied geometry and angular relationships has won him many NBA rebounding titles and he’s not about to change now. For this skill alone, teams are willing to put up with his sideshow. And he does sell tickets.

Like it or not, Dennis has earned the right to be Dennis. At this point in his career, he can do it his way, or no way at all. Whatever you may think of his taste, morality or fashion sense, I think we’d all like to have more of that kind of freedom and control in our own lives—but maybe without the hair!