The hug was heartfelt, fortified by a three-day, multi-state, exhilarating and enervating odyssey of trust and truthfulness. And when I pulled away from Dennis Rodman at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas in May 1995 and began walking toward my gate, I knew I was headed back to Northern California armed with an abundance of compelling material that would grab people's attention like the idiosyncratic NBA star's multi-hued hair dye.