PITTSBURGH — This began in Keith Dambrot’s office two months ago. I was finishing an interview with the Duquesne basketball coach when one of his assistants walked in. He introduced himself as Charles Thomas.
“He played for the Pistons,” Dambrot said, as Thomas was about to leave.
“When?” I wondered.
“Early ‘90s,” Thomas said.
My brain immediately ran the calculations.
“Wait a second,” I said. “Does that mean you played with the ‘Bad Boys’?”
It did. And so began a lively conversation, resumed several times since, as the sports world became glued to “The Last Dance,” a 10-part ESPN documentary on Michael Jordan’s 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, once the Bad Boys’ ferocious rival.
The star of Episode 3 was the Bulls’ bizarre forward, Dennis Rodman. It told of him taking an in-season “vacation” to Las Vegas, and Jordan going west to fetch him.
Of the 6 million Americans watching Sunday, only one had a seat across from Rodman on the Pistons’ team plane six years before the Vegas incident — Charles Thomas. And he insists the Rodman he knew in Detroit was nothing like the wild man in Chicago.
In fact, when Thomas sat down on “Roundball One,” the Pistons’ plane, he could count on Rodman for some down-to-earth conversation.
“Dennis Rodman might have been one of the smartest men I’d been around,” Thomas said. “We just talked about life, man. When we went to Dallas, he showed me around where he grew up.”
As a basketball junkie, I can’t get enough of stories like that.
What about Jordan?
“Old Chicago Stadium — I had six points that night — and I was checking in just as Mike was,” Thomas recalled. “We were sitting at the scorer’s table together, and I didn’t want to show any kind of fear or anything, but I was like, ‘Damn, I finally arrived.’ ”
The two would exchange words later in the season.
“It was a (fouling) situation, and I’m standing between him and Scottie Pippen, and Mike looks at me and says, ‘Rookie comes in and got six fresh fouls,’ and he kind of laughed at me,” Thomas said. “I said, ‘Yup, and I’m using every one of the damn things on you, too.’ ”
Rodman averaged a ridiculous 18.7 rebounds the season (1991-92) Thomas played in Detroit.
“Quick story,” Thomas said. “ ‘Worm’ (Rodman) was my partner in a shooting drill one day. I was missing, but I noticed something when he was rebounding. I said, ‘Dennis, none of the balls hit the floor. How do you even understand how to get rebounds like that?’
“He would just watch the flight of the ball, study it, watch film and be able to anticipate.”
Meanwhile, there’s another story worth telling here: The tale of Charles Thomas and his identical twin brother Carl, also an assistant under Dambrot.
Somebody should make a documentary on these two.
Their maternal grandfather was Billy Milton, who played for and coached the Harlem Globetrotters. He was the guy who made all those two-handed set shots from beyond Steph Curry range and gave Frederick Neal his iconic nickname, “Curly.”
Charles and Carl’s father, Charles I, played at Gonzaga. His sons would team up to lead Eastern Michigan to a stunning Sweet 16 run in 1991. Carl scored 27 points in a loss to Rick Fox-led North Carolina.
The brothers, now 50, would become just the third set of twins to play in the NBA, even though neither was drafted. The first were the Van Arsdales (Dick and Tom) in the 1960s. The second were the Grants (Horace and Harvey). There have been four sets since.
Charles is 12 minutes older and “more of a talker than I am,” Carl said. Carl played 63 games for four teams during the ’90s. He wore No. 23 in Cleveland, a number that became somewhat famous years later when a guy named LeBron wore it. The twins had long professional careers in the CBA and overseas.
Both are riveted by “The Last Dance,” amazed they were part of the ’90s NBA. They’d played at Everett High in East Lansing, Mich., so the Bad Boys were near and dear.
“Nobody expected me to be touching the floor with those guys,” said Charles, who played 36 games with the Pistons. “When I look back, I feel like, ‘Wow, I actually did that.’”
But back to Jordan. Carl guarded him a few times, including once, he says, where he elbowed Jordan in the mouth.
“He looked back like, ‘Who was that dude?’ ” Carl said.
Another time, Carl helped hold Jordan under his average and was part of the main storyline in a Cavaliers’ victory. He also had the horrifying experience of defending a two-on-one against Jordan and Pippen.
“It was like, who do you want to dunk?” Carl said. “I said, ‘I guess I’ll give it to Pip.’ ”
Ultimately, there was only so much a defender could do with Jordan. Those who didn’t know that before “The Last Dance” surely do now. Once in a late-game situation, Cavaliers coach Mike Fratello told Carl to make Jordan go left. Let’s just say Jordan went right. Carl fouled him. Fratello wasn’t pleased.
“He said, ‘Carl, didn’t we say don’t let him go right?’ ” Carl recalled, laughing. “I’m thinking, ‘That’s Mikey Jordan. He wanted to go right, he went right.’ ”
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