Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman posted an apology on Instagram to his daughter, NWSL player Trinity Rodman, after she opened up about their relationship on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast this week.
“He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else,” Trinity said of her father.
Rodman wrote on Instagram that he “never will stop” trying to stay in contact with his daughter and repair their relationship.
“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,” Dennis posted. “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.”
“FYI: I watch you play All the time😊 (actually flew in to watch you play and was told not to show up bc who I was with instead and me just wanting to support you So I watched you from my hotel balcony just to make everybody happy. I love All My Kids”
On Friday, Trinity responded on Instagram by writing, “A joke. The response alone. And the attention. Wiping my hands with it I’m done. Thank you.”
Trinity Rodman / Instagram
In public, Trinity would credit mother Michelle Moyer as her role model. Dennis and Moyer divorced in 2012, when Trinity was 10 years old. Trinity’s relationship with Dennis was always described as complicated, at best, with father enjoying a lifestyle hardly conducive to child-rearing and daughter experiencing long stretches without speaking to her father.
Trinity described living with her mother in a Ford Expedition “for a bit” and giving up on living with her father because of “parties 24/7” and him “bringing random b****es in.” She remembers going to events like his jersey retirement and his Hall of Fame induction, being styled in hair and makeup, all while knowing that the image he was portraying was far from the truth.
“He loves the spotlight. He loves the cameras. He loves bringing his children on stage and being like, ‘Oh, these are my kids.'”
And then there was what happened when Dennis wanted to be known as a father, when he showed up at one of Trinity’s NWSL games unannounced in her first season in 2021. She saw and heard him in the crowd, having not seen or heard from him in months, and she started crying on the field.
“So I’m trying to play this soccer game and I’m crying. … I’m crying. No one knows what the f***’s going on. … And I’m like, ‘Dude, my dad’s here.’
“I finish that half and cry my eyes out in the locker room at halftime. And my coach was like, ‘Do you want to play?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to win. Hello?’ And I’m like, ‘He’s not going to take me from winning this either, f*** you!'”
Trinity Rodman has starred for both the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and the U.S. Women’s National Team. (Photo by John McDonnell/ for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Trinity set up the winning goal in the second half and didn’t know how she was going to feel or what was going to happen once the final whistle blew, and she would have to interact with her father.
“The whistle blew and I was so mad, like, ‘You took this happy moment from me. You f***ed with my head again.’
“And then I walk over, and again there’s cameras everywhere. … And all I did was cry.
“I walk over there, he grabs my head and I just start bawling in his arms, as if it’s a daddy-daughter … “
Trinity said the rest of their time together after the game was pretty “wholesome,” and Dennis told her that he wanted to see her soon. She felt good enough about their interaction to post about “a new beginning” for both of them on social media. That was in 2021. After that, it was “radio silence.” He never reached out to her, and she didn’t see him again for over two years, until late 2023.
It was after that incident with her father in her rookie year that Trinity says she “lost hope in ever getting him back.”
Trinity said in the interview that her relationship with Dennis remains a work-in-progress. She added that she does not have his phone number saved because it’s always changing and that she believes he’s an alcoholic and hearing his voice when he calls is “painful” due to both missing him and hearing how alcoholism has changed the way he speaks.
In fact, Trinity says that every time they interact on the phone it “f***s me up.” But she still takes his calls, even though they’re rare.
“I answer the phone now for my conscience, to be like, he needed to hear my voice before anything else happens. That’s why I answer the phone, not for me.
“He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else.”