Dennis Rodman once made Michael Jordan and the Bulls go all-out in a drill designed to get him back in shape after a personal vacation

• The third and fourth episodes of "The Last Dance" — ESPN's docuseries about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls — introduced viewers to Dennis Rodman.
• The eccentric Bulls forward took a personal vacation midway through the season, and once he returned, head coach Phil Jackson made his goal "to get Dennis back in shape," according to Jordan.
• Jackson put his team through an "Indian drill" where players ran in a line, and whoever was in the back had to run to the front, and Jordan recalled telling his teammates to "slow down to a f---in' walk."
• Rodman didn't get the memo and ran full speed, according to Jordan, who said it took the team "four laps to catch up to Dennis."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dennis Rodman may be best known for his off-court antics, but the eccentric Chicago Bulls forward worked incredibly hard to be ready for gameplay.

So hard, in fact, that it sometimes came at the expense of his teammates.

During the third and fourth episodes of "The Last Dance" — ESPN's docuseries about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Bulls — viewers learned about Rodman's mid-season personal vacation to Las Vegas. After Jordan went to Las Vegas to pull Rodman out of a hotel room and get him to practice, head coach Phil Jackson's mission was "to get Dennis back in shape." Jackson put the whole team through conditioning drills to help Rodman prepare to rejoin the team.

"So I'm saying, 'Well f---, this is kind of messed up,'" Jordan recalled. "Because now I'm getting caught up in the Dennis get-in-shape drill when in essence, I hadn't taken a vacation."

They did an "Indian drill," according to Jordan, which involved players running together in a line and. When Jackson blew his whistle, whoever was in the back had to quicken their pace to run to the front. The player at the front of the line was responsible for setting the pace, which determined how difficult it was for the player in the back to catch up.

"So I tell everybody in that group, 'Look, whoever gets in the front of that row, slow down to a f---in' walk,'" Jordan said during episode four of "The Last Dance." "'We're just gonna jog and jog and jog and jog.'"

Jordan noted that many of his teammates, like Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler, ran slowly once they reached the front. Rodman, however, apparently missed the memo.

"Dennis takes off — Boom," Jordan says. "[Jackson] blows the whistle — now we cannot stop until we get back in front of Dennis. It took us four laps to catch up to Dennis."

"It was, like, in his psyche," Jordan added. "He needed to get away."

Though Rodman was undoubtedly a maverick and often attracted attention from the public and the press due to his quirky persona, Jordan acknowledged that the seven-time rebounding champion was consistent in his preparation and on-court efforts.

"In all honesty, Dennis was always there," Jordan said. "He was always on point."

• Read more:
• Map shows where every state stands in the Michael Jordan-LeBron James GOAT debate
• The liquor Michael Jordan was drinking during his 'Last Dance' interviews is a Tequila brand he co-owns, and bottles can go for as much as $1,800 each
• A veteran NBA reporter who covered Michael Jordan and LeBron James gave a simple explanation for why MJ is the GOAT, and it has nothing to do with rings
• Michael Jordan called his iconic 63-point playoff performance against the Celtics after losing a round of golf to Danny Ainge the day before