BOSTON — When Michael Jordan came out of retirement for the first time in 1995, the Chicago Bulls had to assemble a championship roster from scratch, and one of their most important and iconic players was almost not in the picture.

Dennis Rodman, who completed the “Big Three” with Jordan and Scottie Pippen, was last on Phil Jackson’s wish list of power forwards, the coach said on Friday during a panel on dynasties at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

“We had to start over when Michael came back,” Jackson said. “We had to start with Toni (Kukoc), Scottie and MJ, and I wrote out a list of seven power forwards.”

At the top of Jackson’s list was Derrick Coleman. “The mentality was not there,” he said. “The skills were there, but he was in the middle of a long-term contract.”

After missing out on their other options, the Bulls turned to Rodman — and made basketball history.

“That was the best we could do,” Jackson said, laughing.

As it turns out, he was right: Rodman played a crucial role in the Bulls’ second three-peat, leading the league in rebounding all three years.

“He had incredible athleticism,” Jackson said. “And incredible weirdness. And sometimes the weirdness followed him out to the bars after the game.”