No shortage of sympathy from teammates for Rodman

While Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen have taken abusinesslike stance on the two-game suspension the Bulls gave DennisRodman for his obscene television performance, other teammates havetaken a more compassionate stance.

Rodman was angry when ejected from Sunday's game in Torontoafter getting a technical foul for waving off a foul called againsthim. Referee Bill Spooner said Rodman made an obscene gesture toreferee Mike Mathis. Replays showed no such thing.

"I thought it was a terrible call by the official," said Bullsguard Steve Kerr, the team's union representative. "He didn'tdeserve a technical foul. I don't know what he saw. But I waswatching the whole play and I never saw any finger pop up. I justsaw him wave at him. He didn't deserve a technical."As for his postgame comments, I didn't see anything thatwarranted a ($104,878) fine," Kerr said. "Reggie Miller (blasted)the officials and (NBA operations chief) Rod Thorn about three weeksago and got fined $10,000. Now, Dennis' was obviously laced with afew more expletives, and he probably deserved a fine. But a two-gamesuspension? Naw."Kerr referred the matter to the players union, which has voicedsupport for Rodman and offered legal counsel if he wants to challengethe fine."I think it was too severe," center Bill Wennington said. "Ithink a two-day suspension is a lot and that Dennis is being punishedrather harshly. Dennis was just being Dennis. He's said stuff likethat before. It just wasn't captured on videotape that way. So Idon't put all the blame on Dennis because he's done it before andnothing was done to him. But I don't know what's going on in thefront office.""I think the punishment was too much, but I don't think myopinion carries much weight," center Robert Parish said. "It'sunfortunate anything he does now is blown out of proportion. Idefinitely don't think his behavior up in Toronto warranted thatstiff a penalty."I heard two different stories about what happened. I heardthat the referee said he gave an obscene gesture, but I didn't seeit. And I've heard Dennis say that he did no such thing."Jordan and Pippen have been concerned about Rodman's decreasein desire and production, and they chose not to say where they standon the suspension."I really don't have an opinion," Jordan said. "If you want meto be GM, then pay me to be the GM. You pay me to play basketballand I'll . . . lace up my shoes and play the game of basketball.That's why I don't want to be GM.""I really don't want to comment on Dennis' punishment because Ifeel the main thing is for us to come together as a team and goforward from here," Pippen said. "I don't want to come betweenDennis and management. I will say that we need Dennis out here onthe basketball court. He is a great part of our team and he workshard. He realizes that he did something wrong and he's beingpunished."Do the Bulls expect Rodman to come back as a better team player?"We really are going to give him the benefit of the doubt,"Jordan said. "He's had a tough time trying to find motivation andchallenges at this particular time, which probably led to hisoutburst. We gave him that inch. Now, it's a matter of pulling thatinch back into focus a little bit."The team penalized him. Is it too harsh or too easy? I don'tknow. I think that's something (that has to be) determined. But weas a team - the other 11 players - are still here. We're going outevery day, sweating and getting ourselves motivated and playing thegame of basketball."When he comes back, he can be a part of it or the organizationand Phil (coach Jackson) will have to make different adjustments.But it isn't up to us to worry about Dennis. We have to go out andplay the game of basketball like we know how to play."