Scottie Pippen does not sound happy about Dennis Rodman's trip to Las Vegas after another sub-par showing in the Chicago Bulls' Finals-tying loss to the Utah Jazz Sunday night.
``We don't have any control of what Dennis does off the court,'' Pippen said gravely. ``It's his preference what he wants to do after the game.
``You would think that he would want to start to look and evaluate what's going on on the court with himself but as I stated it's his priority, and whatever he chooses to do, as a teammate I don't have any say-so about it.''
Rodman returned for yesterday's workouts, and was even early.
Bulls coach Phil Jackson said he had not ``endorsed'' Rodman's trip. ``I thought maybe he was going to the state line. He made it beyond that,'' Jackson said.
``Dennis is the kind of person that needs to blow off some steam and I imagine he got it done.''
Michael Jordan seemed unconcerned.
``If that's his way of getting away and getting a renewed attitude . . . I don't have a problem with it - as long as he comes back ready to play Wednesday,'' Jordan said.
Rodman himself, after getting no points and just six rebounds, made no apologies. ``I went out and had a good time and was relaxing. I got rid of this bad taste in my mouth. I had to do that,'' Rodman said.
The flamboyant six-time rebounding champion added: ``I'm not married. I don't have to entertain a family or nothing like that. So we have two days off (before tomorrow's Game 5) so I wanted to get the hell out of here and relax.''
RATINGS WINNER: The NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz are the third-highest rated in series history through the first three games. Games 1-3 averaged a 15.0 rating and 27 share, trailing only the 1993 finals between Chicago and Phoenix, and 1996 with Chicago and Seattle.
