Bulls in the Pit
Championship Chicago team’s appearance in Albuquerque recalled
As talented as they were, the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls couldn’t have won those six NBA championships without the four P’s: Preparation, patience and persistence, leading to the payoff.
That, in essence, was the formula 9-year-old Albuquerque native Dylann Haas employed on the night of Oct. 11, 1996.
The payoff: a No. 91 Dennis Rodman jersey, presented her by the Bulls’ beyond-eccentric rebounder-defender after Chicago’s 120-113 preseason victory over the Seattle SuperSonics at the Pit.
Almost 24 years later, Haas lives in Seattle (a touch of irony there) and works as a partner insights manager for Amazon. She can’t honestly say the Rodman jersey, framed and hanging on a wall at her parents’ home in Albuquerque and not at hers in Seattle, is a prized possession.
“I’m sure if I lived in Albuquerque, I’d probably take it,” she said in a phone interview.
Still, the memories, prompted by an inquiry from the Journal as the ESPN documentary “Last Dance” chronicles the Jordanled final championship season in 1997-98, came flooding back. Here’s how it went down.
■ PREPARATION: Haas came to the game with a sign reading, “My shirt for yours,” hoping for a souvenir. “Obviously, I didn’t
WHEN THE GAME ENDED, HE TOOK OFF HIS JERSEY AND ALL THE MEN WERE, LIKE, SWARMING... BUT RODMAN KEPT POINTING AT ME, (INDICATING) NO, I WANT TO GIVE IT TO THAT GIRL. DYLANN HAAS
take off my shirt,” she said. Rodman was the intended target because he had been known to give away his jersey in the past.
No one in the Haas family, though — Dylann, dad Mark, mom Terry, brother Zac, sister Cezanne — was a hard-core Bulls fan. “But we followed the Bulls,” she said, “mainly because of (former Lobo and then-Bulls center) Luc Longley.
“We had (UNM) season tickets right behind the visitors’ bench. They (her parents) still have them.”
■ PATIENCE: It wasn’t until the next-tolast timeout, Haas said, that the sign and some frantic arm-waving from family members finally got Rodman’s attention.
■ PERSISTENCE: During the final timeout, she said, similar and repeated efforts got his attention again.
■ PAYOFF: “When the game ended,” she said, “he took off his jersey and all the men were, like, swarming down the Pit stairs to where we were. But Rodman kept pointing at me, (indicating) no, I want to give it to that girl.
“My dad kind of shoved me to the front, and (Rodman) gave me his jersey.”
Did Rodman say anything at the time?
“Not that I remember,” she said.
That’s not quite the end of the story. The following January, Zac Haas — then a freshman at UC Davis — had planned travel to Sacramento to see the Bulls play the Kings in hopes of getting Rodman to autograph the jersey.
Rodman, however, never made it to Sacramento — missing the game while serving an 11-game suspension for kicking a cameraman in a sensitive spot during a BullsTimberwolves game a few days before. The offense also generated a fine of $1 million.
“So (the autograph) never happened,” she said.
At the time, Haas was just a few years from a sterling athletic career of her own at Albuquerque Academy.
It was a family tradition.
Zac, the eldest, was the Chargers’ starting quarterback from 1993-95 and played baseball as well. A podiatrist, he works with his father at their Albuquerque practice.
Cezanne was Academy’s No. 1 softball pitcher and among the city’s leading hitters from 1994-98. Now Cezanne Elias, she holds a Ph.D in marriage and family therapy and teaches at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Dylann played first base, shortstop and pitched for the Chargers from 2001-05 while consistently ranked among the metro area’s top hitters.
After high school, Haas enrolled at the University of Washington. There, she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and an MBA.
She’s lived in Seattle ever since.
“I just wanted a big city and the opposite of where I grew up,” she said. “And I wanted professional sports teams.”
Even so, Haas has never really warmed to the Seahawks, Mariners or Storm, though she’s a faithful Huskies football season-ticket holder.
“We grew up Steelers fans,” she said, owing to her father’s western Pennsylvania roots.
Baseball? “Pirates.”
Pro basketball? “We follow Charlotte, just because of James Borrego.”
Borrego, the Hornets’ head coach, was a classmate and close friend of Zac Haas’ at the Academy.
Lately, as have so many, Dylann has been enjoying “The Last Dance” — with Rodman featured prominently for his unique talent on the court and his, uh, unique behavior off it.
Rodman played sparingly that night long ago at the Pit, grabbing seven rebounds and scoring not a single point.
That didn’t stop Dylann Haas, though, from scoring a jersey.