Using a microphone in addressing a crowd after an exhibition game in the Phliipines, Dennis Rodman made a surprise announcement.
He pointed toward an area in the stands and said, “I haven’t seen my father in 42 years, but that’s him sitting right there,” according to the Philipine Daily Inquirer.
Sitting where Rodman pointed was Philander Rodman Jr., whom he has not seen since he was 11, wearing a cap that read: “Yes, Dennis Rodman is my son.”
The elder Rodman was a real-life “rolling stone.” He said he has fathered 29 children by 16 mothers. Seriously. He said he was happy and surprised that his son agreed to meet him late Wednesday. He tried to meet the basketball Hall of Famer during another game in Manila in 2006.
“He accepted me as his father. That’s the first time he ever called me his father,” Philander told reporters, according to ABS-CBN Interactive, the website for a television network in the Philippines. “I really don’t know what I’m gonna say.”
Rodman’s father, who has been living in the Philippines for nearly 50 years, said he wanted to explain to his son that he didn’t abandon his family in the United States, but they only had time for greetings and handshakes.
“I love my son. I just want to talk to him, about all the wrong things he said about me, talk to him so we can get this fixed,” he told reporters, according to ABS-CBN Interactive.
A Vietnam War veteran, he now operates the Rodman’s Rainbow Obamaburger restaurant in northern Angeles City.
Leading up to the game, Rodman was hopeful of seeing his dad.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Rodman said in a news conference Tuesday that, “I’m gonna be glad if he shows up in the game. I don’t hate my father. Everyone here knows that my father lives in this country. I don’t hate him.”
