Seven years with the Pistons plenty for them to retire Dennis Rodman’s number
By Dan Feldman
In both his pregame session with the media and halftime speech Friday, Dennis Rodman said he didn’t think he deserved to have his number retired. He said he didn’t do enough for the Pistons and indicated he didn’t play for Detroit long enough to earn the honor.
Of course, based on his play and impact, Rodman deserved to have his number retired. But let’s boil it down to just years of service.
Rodman played seven seasons for the Pistons – a perfectly reasonable amount of time to spend with a franchise before having a number retired.
The average number of seasons spent with the franchise that retired a player’s number is 8.8, and 59 of the 159 players who’ve had their number retired by an NBA team (37 percent) played seven or fewer seasons with that franchise.
Here’s a chart showing how many years every player who’s had his number retired spent with the franchise that bestowed the honor: