Just in case you missed the lunacy of it all, NBA commissioner David Stern summed up in one word Dennis Rodman acting as a quasi-U.S. diplomat in meeting with North Korea suppressor Kim Jong Un and calling him a “cool guy.”
“Ridiculous,” the outgoing commish said.
Rodman was in North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters as part of a project for HBO. Somehow, the strange Rodman ended up attending a game and convening afterward with Kim, who has been a dictator and continues to defy United Nations acts on nuclear weapons.In an interview with Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes, Stern – suspended Rodman many times during the former player’s NBA career with the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers – did not hold back his disdain for Rodman’s laudatory remarks about Kim.”I think it’s ridiculous,” Stern said. “I think that if you’re going to meet someone with the record on human rights, and nuclear testing in a reckless way, counterfeiting U.S. dollars, and exporting a horrible brand of whatever it is that he’s exporting, starving his people, and locking them up, it should be done only in conjunction with the State Department with an agenda. If not, you shouldn’t go.”
Rodman went on ABC on Sunday and rambled mindlessly about how the dictator was a basketball fan, a good guy and that Kim wants President Obama to call him, among other things. It was pointed out by interviewer Charlie Rose that Rodman did not intend to meet with the country’s leader when he arrived in North Korea.
“No,” Stern said. “But then it was the burden of somebody to try to educate Dennis a little bit so he doesn’t come back and say, ‘The dude is really cool. His father was great. His grandfather was great. And really why doesn’t the President just give him a buzz?’ ”
Surely, if this was an NBA matter, Rodman would be suspended by Stern indefinitely.
