Trinity Rodman is the daughter of a polemical NBA legend, which is one of the reasons why she never wanted to be a basketball player.
Now she is making history in another sport – because she used the pandemic to her advantage.
Posted today at 6:25 pm
Trinity Rodman loves football.
There’s a ritual that Trinity Rodman describes pretty well. Before each of her football matches, she writes the initials of the five most important people in her life on her wrist: mother, brother, sister, niece, nephew. The initials “DR” are missing, they stand for her father Dennis Rodman. A basketball legend, highly decorated: five-time NBA champion, seven-time rebound champion, two-time All-Star, two-time Defensive Player of the Year. Just dad of the year, he never became.
His numerous alcohol, drug and sex antics even overshadowed his glorious career as an athlete; In 2011, when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he said in tears: “I wish I were a better father.” Well, apparently not much has changed. Because on Trinity’s big day he was nowhere to be seen.
It was Michelle Moyer, his third ex-wife, jumping wildly back and forth, Trinity herself just laughed heartily. The Washington Spirit striker had just been drafted as the youngest female footballer ever – and in second place. Of course, she was aware that her surname was massively increasing media attention; When asked about it, she says: “He was a great athlete and I got these genes from him. But I’m Trinity Rodman and not just Dennis Rodman’s daughter. “
Trinity Rodman realized early on that her father was not a good role model in all his antics. As a four-year-old girl, she found football, and that remained her passion, although she tried other sports such as football, cheerleading, volleyball and of course basketball.
In addition to her father, she also wanted to persuade NBA legend Kobe Bryant to follow in the footsteps of her famous dad. But she stayed tough, like she did on the French portal «So Foot» tolds hat Spass made two previous basketballtars to say: ‹Fussball is better!›“Even today, her enthusiasm for basketball seems to be limited. While millions of viewers «The Last Dance» celebrated, she said she had hardly seen the Netflix documentary about her father’s last season with the legendary Chicago Bulls. She just kept falling asleep.
Normal training was too little for her
What Rodman evidently inherited from her father was this unconditional will to win. She told ESPN that even as a little girl she could get upset if her teammates didn’t give everything on the pitch. But then there weren’t much more in common, as her former coach Greg Baker recognized: “Trinity was always very shy and respectful.” She did not attract attention because of her extravagance, but because of her uncanny talent. “I always had to give her additional challenges, normal training would have been too little,” said Baker.
He coached Rodman for eight years, during which time they won four national championships and over 30 other tournaments together. Then it was time for the next step. Because her brother Dennis Jr. got a basketball scholarship from Washington State University, Rodman wanted to go to that college too, so the striker joined the WSU soccer team after finishing high school in California.
It didn’t take her long to impress coach Todd Shulenberger – and not just because of her ball skills. A fitness test was on the program during the trial session – Rodman was by far the best of the entire team. And there was the U-20 Concacaf championship in early 2020. At the junior continental tournament of North and Central America, she led the USA to the title with eight goals and six assists, and scored two goals in the 4-1 final win over Mexico.
When she was doing so well, she suddenly had to keep her feet still again. The corona pandemic ensured that the autumn season could not even take place. “I got impatient and wanted to play again as soon as possible.” So she skipped four years and signed up for the draft of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the North American professional league, without having played a single college game: “I thought to myself: just do it!”
For Richie Burke, Washington Spirit coach, her engagement was a “no brainer”. She is a great footballer. And U-20 national coach Laura Harvey praises Rodman for her “extraordinarily high football IQ and technical skills that match her athleticism”. Hardly anyone expects that an appointment to the senior national team will be too long in coming.
It would be a further step out of the shadow of her famous father, closer to her goal: that when people read the name Rodman, they no longer immediately think of a gifted basketball player and his scandals – but of a brilliant footballer.
