Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is heading to rehab as one expert said jail time for his weekend DUI bust seems like a slam dunk.
The eccentric Hall of Famer was arrested for DUI in Newport Beach, Calif., late Saturday while still on probation for driving the wrong way on a freeway in 2016.
Rodman will check into a rehab center by the middle of the week, his agent and longtime friend Darren Prince told the Daily News on Monday.
“He’s been dealing with some personal stuff for the past month and a half, two months, much more than usual, and I told him, this gives him an opportunity to shut it down,” Prince told the Daily News. “I've told him, ‘put yourself into a rehab center and find out why this is happening. Get to the underlying root.’”
Dennis Rodman, NBA legend and Kim Jong Un's pal, arrested for DUI
One expert in California DUI law said Rodman’s judge will have little choice but to impose jail time or house arrest since the court already cut him a break with his no-jail probation deal for his wrong-way driving case.
“Assuming the allegations are true and he was driving impaired, there’s absolutely no question in my mind he’s going to receive some custodial time. The real question is how creative does his lawyer get in working with the court,” DUI attorney Trent Copeland, who is not representing Rodman, told The News.
“He’s likely to get some jail time, and I expect there will be an additional component including time spent in rehab,” Copeland said. “Either way, there’s going to be a component where he is going to be not free to leave.”
Rodman’s lawyer, Paul Meyer, said it was too soon to forecast outcomes.
“The case is unfolding, so predictions are premature,” Meyer said in a statement to The News.
“Dennis is getting on a positive treatment track to address this. He is very cooperative,” the lawyer said.
Rodman, 56, was pulled over for a traffic violation late Saturday and failed a field sobriety test, police said.
Dennis Rodman was arrested on suspicion of DUI in California on Saturday.
(NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)The rebound champ who won five NBA titles — two with the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990 and three with the Chicago Bulls in 1996, 1997 and 1998 — submitted to a Breathalyzer test and blew over the .08 legal limit, cops said.
He was released from custody Sunday morning.
At the time of his arrest, Rodman was on probation for driving his Range Rover the wrong way in carpool lane on the I-5 Freeway in southern California in June 2016.
He allegedly drove head-on toward another vehicle, causing the driver to swerve and crash into a concrete wall.
Under his plea deal last year, Rodman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of driving the wrong way on a divided California highway, providing false information to an officer and driving without a valid license.
Orange County prosecutors dropped the more serious hit-and-run charge.
Rodman was sentenced to three years of probation, 30 hours of community service and victim restitution.
Prince said Rodman’s alleged problems might be worsened by his professional success.
Rodman’s issue, according to Prince, is that he's still popular and financially viable — and may not feel like he's hit the proverbial rock bottom.
“When he still makes money and he's still desirable to different company and brands, it’s hard,” he said. “What Dennis has, whatever is left in his marketability, forget that he's going to be 57 — most retired athletes at 37 don’t have the opportunities he has.”
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