Dennis Rodman’s Las Vegas foray a ‘Last Dance’ high

The frequent forays became known as “The Rodman World Tour.”

The Hard Rock Hotel, the Drink (and Eat Too!), The Mirage, Club Rio and the Las Vegas Hilton were among the more popular Las Vegas tour stops. And Dennis Rodman was the headliner.

“He was at the Hard Rock a lot, and we served him dozens of times,” says Rick “Ziggy” Pawlowski, a Hard Rock bartender dating to the hotel’s opening in 1995. “He would order bottles of Patron (tequila) while he was down in the pit, playing craps. He always had an entourage, four or five guys.

“I’d sell bottles to him, and take them to him on the casino floor — and we never sold bottles. This was before bottle service was even a thing in Las Vegas.”

Pawlowski remembers Rodman showing up one night at the Hard Rock’s famous Center Bar, where the acoustics of the high-arced ceiling carried even casual conversations across the venue.

Rodman was loudly and graphically describing one of his favorite sex acts when bartenders asked him to tone it down.

“We had to say, ‘Everyone can hear you. This isn’t where you hang your dirty laundry,’ ” Pawlowski says. “He said, ‘OK, I’m cool.’ I think he was obnoxious just for shock value. But this was the Hard Rock; he was at home. Everyone was out of control.”

One of Rodman’s madcap Vegas visits is recounted at 9 p.m. Sunday in Episode 3 of “The Last Dance,” the five-week, 10-episode ESPN documentary series focusing on the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-98 season. Specifically, part three recalls a Rodman trip to Las Vegas in 1998.

As the documentary chronicles, Rodman received permission from Bulls coach Phil Jackson for a quick trip to Vegas. Rodman had spent much of the season as Michael Jordan’s sidekick because the Bulls’ No. 2 star, Scottie Pippen, who typically held that role, was out with a foot injury.

In Pippen’s place, Rodman had been a “model citizen,” Jordan says in the documentary, and was going “(expletive) insane” behaving himself until Pippen returned in January 1998. Rodman finally asked Jackson for some time off to “let loose.” Jackson offered 48 hours.

Jordan skeptically told the coach, “Phil, you let this dude take a vacation, we’re not going to see him. If you let him go to Vegas, we’re definitely not gonna see him.”

Jordan flew to town to retrieve the wayward power forward.

“He did not come back on time,” Jordan says. “We had to go get his ass out of bed, and I’m not going to say what’s in his bed, where he was, blah, blah, blah.”

Jordan showed up, hammering on the door of Rodman’s room. Rodman was with then-girlfriend and future wife Carmen Electra, who hid behind a couch and under a blanket so Jordan wouldn’t see her (Vegas historians know that the two were later married in November 1998 at Little Chapel of the Flowers).

“Dennis came back and joined the team, and that’s the way it went that year,” Jackson says in the episode.

Advance clips and coverage of part three of “The Last Dance” do not specify when this particular Rodman trip occurred. But then-Las Vegas Sun sports writer Tim Graham, now with The Atlantic, wrote a detailed account of Rodman’s overnight misadventures from June 3, 1998.

That was the night the Bulls lost to the Utah Jazz 88-85 in overtime in Salt Lake City to open the 1998 NBA Finals. Rodman reportedly flew to Vegas after clearing the Delta Center, then hit the Hard Rock Hotel, ventured to Club Rio (Tiger Woods also happened to be at the club that night) and landed at the Hilton.

Rodman was still flourishing at a Hilton craps table at 5 a.m., but he did make Game 2 in Salt Lake on June 5, a 93-88 Bulls victory.

Decades later, Rodman-in-Vegas stories are part of civic lore. Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins took another team-authorized trip with Rodman during the 1997 NBA Finals, when the Bulls were also in Salt Lake City to play the Jazz. The two partied all night after the Bulls’ loss in Game 4.

Rodman, operating on no sleep, made the 9 a.m. shoot-around at the Delta Center — after partying for eight hours in Vegas.

After the practice, Rodman attempted to coerce Corgan to return to Las Vegas. That morning. Corgan relented. Rodman took a commercial flight, back to Vegas, on a day off in the NBA Finals.

The Bulls won the series in six games.

Rodman has long been known to love the craps table. A Mirage dealer won an $80,000 settlement from the 6-foot-7 Hall of Famer for damages after an incident in October 1997. The dealer claimed Rodman humiliated him during a run at the table by allegedly rubbing the dice over the man’s head, stomach and groin.

Rodman’s attorneys never denied the actions. They argued it was all for good luck.

Rodman was also such a regular at the Thursday night Boogie Knights performances at the Drink that clubgoers sometimes thought he was part of the act. One night, circa 1996, then-UNLV sportscaster Tony Cordasco arrived at the club with a date.

Rodman was there in a VIP booth. Carrot Top and Ric Flair also were on the scene.

Soon, Cordasco noticed his date had slipped away.

“I finally found her, making out with Rodman,” Cordasco remembers today. “I lost my date to Dennis Rodman. I still can’t believe that happened.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.