It was 15 years ago last month that Nick Nurse, desperate for an injection of oomph to a basketball season, pulled off a coup.
Then the coach and de facto general manager of the Brighton Bears in the small-time British Basketball League, Nurse signed a Hall of Famer named Dennis Rodman. Rodman, most famous as the peerless designated ball retriever of five NBA championship teams in Chicago and Detroit, was 44 years old and a few days removed from being evicted from the “Big Brother” reality TV show. Nurse’s Bears paid him about $75,000 to play three games.