Dennis Rodman Apologizes to Daughter Trinity After Her Comments on Their Relationship

Dennis Rodman reacts after being introduced as part of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on February 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dennis Rodman reacts after being introduced as part of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on February 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. / Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

Five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman apologized to his daughter, Trinity, after she made critical comments about their relationship and detailed her ongoing struggles of being his daughter.

The former Chicago Bulls star shared an emotional post on Instagram on Thursday in which said he was sorry for not being “the Dad you wanted me to be.” The post showed several photos of the two of them set to the soundtrack of Bob Carlisle’s “Butterfly Kisses.”

“Sorry I wasn't the Dad you wanted me to be but either way I still tried and I still Try and Never will Stop,” Rodman wrote. “I will keep Trying even when you're being told as an adult not to respond to my phone calls. I will try even when it's difficult and if it takes a long time. 

“I'm always here And tell you all the time rather it's your voice or voicemail how proud I am. I always had one wish and it was I wish my kids would call me and come see me. Hopefully one day I can get that. I'm here and I'm still trying pick up the phone you have my number, You see me calling, I'm still here Dennis RODMAN- Dad”

Trinity Rodman, a forward for the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, opened up about her fractured relationship with her father on an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast earlier this week.

“He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else,” Trinity said. “Hearing his voice is painful.”

Trinity’s embrace with her father at a Washington Spirit playoff game in 2021 memorably went viral, but she revealed on the podcast that she and Dennis hadn’t spoken for months before that moment and wouldn’t be in contact for years after.

“I was so mad,” she said. “I was like ‘You took this happy moment from me. You f---ed with my head again.’ I'm walking over there (toward Dennis) so mad, like ‘F--- you.’ I walk over there, he grabs my head and I just start bawling into his arms as if it's a daddy-daughter (moment).”

Trinity, 22, became the youngest player ever drafted into the NWSL in 2021 and won the league’s Rookie of the Year award that season. She’s scored 10 goals and added nine assists in 45 appearances for the U.S. Women’s National Team, for which she made her debut in February 2022.

The star forward proved to be an especially dangerous threat in the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she scored three goals and notched one assist to help the USWNT take home gold this past summer.


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.