USC opened the season with a showcase game in Las Vegas against Kansas State. With a pair of high-profile second-generation players on the team, it's no surprise that there was a celebrity relative in the front row for the game.
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It wasn't LeBron James, though. The future NBA Hall of Famer and one of the top players in the game's history didn't attend, because his son, Bronny, a freshman with the Trojans, wasn't playing. Recovering from an offseason heart scare, Bronny began dressing for games and warming up in late November and may make his college debut soon. Then the courtside LeBron watch can begin.
It wasn't Dennis Rodman, father of graduate transfer DJ Rodman, who was making his USC debut after four seasons with Washington State. The NBA Hall of Famer separated from DJ's mother when he was a preschooler, and the two have had a complicated relationship.
Three years ago, on father's day, the younger Rodman posted on social media, honoring his mother Michelle, who, he said, "play(ed) both father and mother figures for my whole life."
Being social media, Rodman drew criticism from commentators over the hostility toward his father.
"Just like, 'you guys don't know the whole story,'" DJ told the local media recently. "You guys are out here defending an absent father that you guys don't know - it's just one of those things where it's like, you guys don't know (expletive). Sorry for my language, but you guys don't know (expletive)."
DJ hasn't totally separated himself from his NBA bloodlines. He pulled down 10 rebounds in a Washington State game against Northern Colorado his junior year, which was then a career high (he's since exceeded it three times). In a postgame TV interview, he said, "It's easy to say it's in the genes, (but) it's in the genes."
"Except the shooting," he added, noting his un Worm-like 7-of-13 accuracy for 21 points. "I got that myself."
Dennis Rodman wasn't courtside for the game, but there was another famous Rodman who took her spot in the front row, next to mom Michelle—DJ's sister Trinity, a member of the U.S. Women's World Cup soccer team and the youngest draftee in NWSL history.
Brother and sister have been inseparable throughout their lives.
"We've done everything together since we were born," Trinity said on a podcast she and her brother guested on while in college together. "Even in elementary school, people were surprised. We'd request the same teachers.We just did everything together."
They also both went to Washington State and quarantined together during the pandemic.
"She's my sister," DJ said, "but she's also my lifelong best friend, always."
Like her brother, Trinity's relationship with her father has been shaky, at times, and she struggled with the constant mentions of her famous namesake.
"Dj doesn't get bothered by it, because he's easy," she said. "He's better at brushing it off. I'm more like, 'Why do you guys have to think that about me? Get to know me.'"
Still, DJ also appreciates the chance to make his own name. "The coaches at Washington State didn't look at me for my name," he said. "They looked at me. Of course, every once in awhile they were like, 'Oh, you showed a little bit of your dad there.'"
While Dennis Rodman was known for his antics on and off the court as much as for his rebounding prowess, DJ Rodman comes without the extra baggage. There are no mysterious disappearances to film wrestling shows, no kicking courtside photographers, no hurling his jersey into the crowd.
"He's one of the best glue guys in the country," teammate Boogie Ellis told the local media early this season.
In other words, the type of player a winning team needs. Which makes DJ Rodman very similar to his famous ... sister.
