APNewsbreak: Rodman sets team for North Korea game

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By DAN GELSTON

Dennis Rodman has named a team of former NBA players to play an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Rodman will lead the team that includes former NBA All-Stars Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson, and Vin Baker. Craig Hodges, Doug Christie and Charles D. Smith are on the team, as well. They will play against a top North Korean senior national team on Wednesday, marking Kim Jong Un's birthday.

Rodman is the highest profile American to meet Kim since the leader inherited power from his father in late 2011.

Rodman calls the game his version of "basketball diplomacy."

FULL story at link.


Read more: By DAN GELSTON

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In this Dec. 20, 2013, file photo, former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman holds a cigar as he speaks to North Korean basketball players during a practice session in Pyongyang, North Korea. During the session, Rodman selected the members of the North Korean team who will play in Pyongyang against visiting NBA stars on Jan. 8, 2014, the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Rodman has named a team of former NBA players to participate in an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang, North Korea. Rodman will lead a team that includes former NBA All-Stars Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson, and Vin Baker. Craig Hodges, Doug Christie and Charles D. Smith are on the team, as well. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

[Monk06]

1. The losing team gets eaten by a pack of 120 starving dogs.

[edbermac]

9. Or the winning team

Kim sounds like a bad loser.

[yuiyoshida]

12. It must be that Haircut.... He really wants to look

Like RAIN

[freshwest]

14. But you can see in those eyes an honest sweetness. Kim will never get there! n/t

[yuiyoshida]

16. It has to be the hair...

If they would only let him grow it out, he might be a happier dictator!

[Nanjing to Seoul]

18. All Kim needs to do is slim down a ton or two, get some talent other than killing and oppressing

and boom. . .he becomes the North Korean Rain!

[titaniumsalute]

2. This is insane...

Little Kim executes his uncle by having him eaten by 120 hungry dogs. Rodman somehow thinks this is OK for him to go and "peform" for this sack of inhumane shit??

[Chakab]

4. You must be running out of things to get outraged about if Dennis Rodman going to North

Korea raises your dander.

I don't know why people are obsessing about these Rodman stories. The guy is a burnt out former pro athlete and a recovering drunk/drug addict who blew through all of his money years ago. Are you really surprised that he would take any opportunity for some exposure?

[davidpdx]

20. No not really

But it still doesn't excuse him from chumming around with a dictator who kills people (including his own uncle) for disagreeing with him. What is going on in North Korea is worse then most in the US can imagine. The American media rarely covers North Korea except when a big event happens (like killing his uncle, firing a missile, detonating a nuclear bomb, etc). You've probably seen pictures of people that were in concentration camps in Germany in WWII. That is pretty much what is going on in the gulags in North Korea. If you do something wrong, not only do YOU go to prison, but so does three generations of your family.

Meanwhile Rodman is sitting back with his cigar in his mouth, sipping his hooch.

So my answer is, yes we should be outraged.

[titaniumsalute]

22. Obsessing? I read a post and respond to it is obsessing??

No here's what I obsess about...treating humans like humans. Of course this is NOT what North Korea does in the slightest. Dennis Rodman (a celebrity US Citizen) paying attention to this crazy dictator only helps to make Lil' Kim think he's more important than he is. And now other former NBAers are going as well? Screw that. Let them move there and see how buddy buddy they are with DPNK.

[christx30]

10. Part of me wants to think this could be

like ping pong diplomacy with China in the 70's. But Rodman is a blind asshole. So I wouldn't put much past him.

[Duckhunter935]

3. I would hate to

be on the North Korean team if they lose. To the gulag for you and you and you......

[SHRED]

5. Rodman entertains a person who murders his own family members

Way to go Dennis!



Idiot.

[Raine1967]

6. These players agreed to this?

This is getting more and more strange.

Did they get permission to go to there? What the hell? are we now supposed to ignore that he killed his uncle and girlfriend?

[longship]

7. With a pack of salivating dogs waiting on the sidelines

Better not lose, Denny.

Or, maybe... Better not win.

Either way, you are rolling the dice.

[Mz Pip]

8. 5 to 1 baby

1 to 5.
No one here
Gets out alive.

The Doors.

[SoapBox]

11. This is one big freak show mess.

I really don't know where to go with this.

[bearssoapbox]

13. Dennis who?

Rodman who?

[freshwest]

15. In an alternative universe, this might help North Korea. But I don't think we live there. Yet. n/t

[eShirl]

17. But Rodman considers him a friend and a really cool guy.

[Kaleva]

19. Hard to make a 3 point jump shot with a starved dog ripping your balls off.

[EC]

21. They had better be hoping the little

guy doesn't become displeased with them. I'm guessing Rodney isn't immune to his insanity. The Worm is thinking he's a big deal to this little guy and I'm thinking this maniacs mind can change in a nanosec. "As the dormouse said....Keep your head" I hope Rodman is using his head.

[Karma13612]

23. Is it possible

That Dennis is gathering information?

Could this be a modern day cold war tactic to get rare inside information that would otherwise be unavailable to us / US?

I know we spy and have satellites and access to lots of info via NSA, but I am becoming more convinced this is not as simple as it seems.

has Dennis been approached by the US gov'mnt to get close to KJU and gather information? i am betting the gov would offer Dennis some handsome money for it. And as someone in this thread said, Dennis is a has been at this point. Probably could use the money.

[Marrah_G]

24. Craziness and frankly risking their lives.

[valerief]

25. So if the NK team loses, will the former NBA players be executed?

Isn't that how things work in NK?

[malthaussen]

26. Somehow, I'm flashing on the ping-pong diplomacy with China...

... you remember that?

Sport is supposed to be a universal language.

-- Mal

[Dash87]

27. Can we acknowledge that he's an alien from outer space now?

[heaven05]

28. diplomacy? ok.

but I still say

[samsingh]

29. rodman is disgusting

he's celebrating a psychopath.

I have no respect left for rodman.