Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman doesn't know his father well. The aptly named Philander Rodman left Dennis mother 48 years ago and the former Pistons Spurs Bulls Lakers and Mavericks forward hadnit seen his father for 42 years. Until recently, that is, when a barnstorming team Dennis plays for stumbled into Manila in the Philippines, and Dennis surprisingly agreed to a short meeting with his father. That's correct. Twenty-nine children by 16 mothers. So, without any visual evidence to support it, you can at least assume that Dennis (who clearly, and we're not making some dry joke, suffers from incredible shyness and social anxiety) kept his sunglasses on and the discussion was brief. Dennis has a hard time talking to former teammates he once won championships with, so the father that left his house when he was 3 probably isn't the easiest to gab with. Here's Dennis' take on his father, from his 1996 memoir "Bad As I Want To Be," with some cursing removed: "I never really knew my father, Philander Rodman. He was in the Air Force in New Jersey, where I was born, and when I was three we packed up and came back to Dallas where my mother is from. We did this when my father stopped coming home. My father isn't part of my life. I haven't seen him in more than thirty years, so what is there to miss? I just look at it like this: Some man brought me into this world. That doesn't mean I have a father; I don't. I could say, 'This is my father. This is my dad,' but that doesn't sound right to me. I grew up with my mother and two younger sisters, Debra and Kim. There wasn't a male role model in my life until I got to college and started getting my [act] together."