It looks like a glitch in the broadcast, a moment where the intense physical theater of professional basketball spills over the invisible line separating the elite athletes from the people documenting them. A stumble, a flash of instant frustration, and suddenly a millionaire superstar is violently lashing out at a man just doing his job sitting on the floor.
This shocking scene unfolded on January 15, 1997, during a game between the Chicago Bulls and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The player was Dennis Rodman, the Bulls’ eccentric and volatile rebounding specialist, known as “The Worm.” The man on the floor was Eugene Amos, a freelance cameraman.
The incident began routinely enough. Rodman, known for his relentless hustle, chased a loose ball toward the baseline. As the ball sailed out of bounds, Rodman’s momentum carried him off the court, and he tripped over Amos, who was sitting cross-legged behind his camera just past the baseline stripe. Rodman tumbled to the hardwood.
While sitting up, clearly infuriated by the obstruction, Rodman lashed out. He delivered a swift, deliberate kick to Amos’s groin area. Amos writhed in pain and was eventually taken off on a stretcher. Rodman was assessed a technical foul but, surprisingly, was not ejected from the game.
The fallout, however, was severe and immediate. The NBA commissioner, David Stern, viewed the act as unparalleled conduct detrimental to the league. Rodman was handed one of the harshest penalties in NBA history at the time: an 11-game suspension without pay and a $25,000 fine.
The financial hit to Rodman was massive; the lost wages from the suspension totaled over $1 million. Furthermore, Eugene Amos filed assault charges. Rodman eventually agreed to a confidential out-of-court settlement, reportedly paying Amos $200,000 to resolve the matter. The incident became a defining moment of Rodman’s “bad boy” persona, illustrating how quickly intense on-court competitiveness could devolve into inexcusable aggression.