Worm could turn up somewhere // Rodman not ready yet to call it a career

Dennis Rodman, waived Thursday by the Los Angeles Lakers, saidhe is not ready to concede his NBA career is over.

"It depends on if somebody wants to take a chance on having aguy like me on a team that can win a championship," Rodman, 37, toldFox. "I will go and play with them."

Rodman accused the Lakers of making him a scapegoat."They have to have a fall guy, and I'm basically the fall guy,"Rodman said. "I wanted to come here and win and play here. (TheLakers) are cowards not to take the fall for some of the things thathave happened this year."Rodman, the league's seven-time rebounding king who helped theBulls win their last three championships, was waived after he arrivedlate for practice Thursday and claimed he couldn't find his shoes andsocks."I think it was justified," the Lakers' Kobe Bryant said of thedecision to release Rodman. "When a guy shows up continuously late.. . . Yeah, it was definitely justified."Lakers coach Kurt Rambis, who took the job Feb. 26 - the sameday Rodman played his first game with the team - recommended tomanagement that Rodman be dropped."This is a time where we need an ultimate focus andconcentration," Rambis said Friday before the Lakers departed forUtah, where they will face the Jazz tonight. "I just think this isbetter for the team."Rodman had not been given an ultimatum before Thursday, Rambissaid, adding he was disappointed the move had to be made because ofwhat Rodman had shown he was capable of doing. The Lakers were 17-6with Rodman in uniform, but 6-6 in the last 12 games after starting11-0."The in-and-out just got to be too much," Rambis said. "I feltwe needed everyone to be on the same page. I gave my recommendationto management, a minimum of a suspension. It was my belief we shouldwaive him at this time."Rambis expressed that belief to Lakers executive vice presidentfor basketball operations Jerry West, who is in Phoenix at the NikeDesert Classic. West, who opposed signing Rodman in the first place,called owner Jerry Buss and got permission to dump Rodman.Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said Rodman's refusal toreturn to games - something that happened four times, including hisfinal game Tuesday night in Portland - ranked high on the list ofnegatives."This was a culmination of acts that led to the waiver," Kupchaksaid. (Thursday's) act alone would have never led to this kind ofaction. It's another in a series of actions."There also were the times he was late to practice, not tomention the four-game leave of absence he took last month."We felt like he could have gone to war with us a little more,"Bryant said."I'm a little disappointed. I wanted Dennis to hang around.He's very unpredictable. Winning cures everything. He helped usout, to be honest with you. When he was here, he did provide us witha lot of energy. I would love to have Dennis right now. If we hadwon the last two games, he would still be here."Rodman averaged 2.1 points, 11.2 rebounds and 28.6 minutes in 23games. He signed a two-year deal with the Lakers, who owe him what'sleft on this year's prorated $600,000 contract, plus $1 million fornext year.