LOS ANGELES — The colors of DJ Rodman’s precisely manicured fingernails change with the months, centered around one simple idea: He wants people to see.
He does not like black polish. He does not like white. When the USC fifth-year senior shoots the ball, he wants the hues to flash off his fingertips. He has painted them bright-yellow, earlier this year; this Tuesday afternoon, a few days after a momentous win over UCLA, they are a shade of pinkish-orange that simply does not exist in nature.
“Have you seen, from ‘Spy Kids,’ when he has the Band-Aids on his fingers, and it looks cool and (expletive)?” Rodman asks the Southern California News Group, clarifying upon immediate realization this does not ring a bell.
“Yeah, it’s in the first ‘Spy Kids’ – Juni, the redhead kid, has Band-Aids all over his fingers, and it’s all colorful?” he says. “I want my fingers to look like that, kinda … I want it to be noticeable.”
And, yeah, people have noticed. Careful what you wish for. A late November game at Oklahoma was the first time he heard comments on his nails, Rodman recalls. “They were calling me – I don’t even know, some bad things,” Rodman says, smiling, censoring himself from going any further.
“Like, for me, I’m ready for whatever’s said to me,” Rodman says. “‘Cause, for me, I know who I am. Like, people don’t know me. Like, I’m me. I got my people, I got my girlfriend, got my mom, sister, who support my decisions and what I do.”
“So I don’t really care,” he continues. “I don’t really give a (expletive).”
On Thursday, Rodman will return to Pullman, Washington, for the first time as USC plays Washington State, where he played four years and graduated before transferring to USC. It’ll bring a wealth of mixed emotions, both for Rodman and the “Pullman faithful,” as Washington State coach Kyle Smith described them in a Tuesday presser.
“I think he’ll probably prepared to get booed,” the fifth-year Cougars coach said good-naturedly.
There are several layers of intrigue, here, deeper than the now-common occurrence of a former transfer reuniting with their old school’s environment. Rodman has nothing but love and fond memories for Washington State, but he has hardly been one to mince words or filter his own thoughts. In September, when asked by media his reason for transferring in his first time speaking at USC, he said he was “tired of losing” – “I mean, no disrespect to Washington State where I came from – that’s a rebuilding program, and I wanted to spend my last year and win.”
Five months later, USC (11-16, 5-11 Pac-12) is near the bottom of the Pac-12 and Washington State (21-7, 12-5 Pac-12) is one of the best stories in college basketball.
Rodman smiles when asks about his comments from the fall, the irony evidently not lost on him. He transferred, too, in part hoping for an expanded offensive role, and the forward has been a key part of USC’s program, but his numbers – about eight points and five rebounds a game – have declined slightly from his last year at Washington State. So he’d hope adults might not join in, but he expects students to boo, he said Tuesday. Somehow, one of the more outwardly positive 22-year-olds in Los Angeles has become a lightning rod for criticism.
And Rodman loves it. It brings a spotlight, same as his nails, same as his last name.
Since he transferred to USC, Rodman’s social media has been ripe with NIL brand deals – everything from exclusive Rodman merch to partnerships with Crocs and Honey Stinger and Jaxxon Club and more ands. In a time where most athletes still play coy when it comes to NIL, Rodman is revealing: Opportunity in Los Angeles wasn’t “the sole reason why I left,” he says, “but it was some of the reason.”
Rodman has been fighting the “spoiled” label since childhood, bestowed upon him by people who don’t see beyond the fact that he’s Dennis Rodman’s son and don’t know the reality: a childhood spent bouncing from apartment to apartment in relative poverty.
“I never want to worry about money again,” Rodman says. “And growing up, all we had to do was worry about money, ironically. Some people might not believe that, but it’s the reality, so.”
The winning hasn’t come, like he hoped. But Rodman has grown up, he feels, through a strange year. He’s closer to family, his sister Trinity and mother Michelle courtside regulars at the Galen Center. His world has expanded. So it’s “cool,” Rodman says, if he’s met with a wave of boos in Pullman.
“No bad talk about Washington State, but that’s a very small – and again, it’s not their fault – but it’s a very small market, and not a lot of publicity,” Rodman says. “So I don’t regret anything. I don’t regret any decision I make.”
USC at WASHINGTON STATE
When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Beasley Coliseum, Pullman, Wash.
TV/radio: Pac-12 Network/790 AM