Former US basketball player Dennis Rodman has named a team of former National Basketball Association (NBA) players to participate in an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang.
Rodman leads a team that includes former NBA All-Stars Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson, and Vin Baker.
Craig Hodges, Doug Christie and Charles Smith are on the team as well.
They will play against a top North Korean Senior National team on Wednesday, marking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s birthday.
Rodman is the highest profile American to meet Kim since the leader inherited power after his father died in late 2011.
Rodman calls the game his version of “basketball diplomacy.”
“My previous travels have allowed me to feel the enthusiasm and warmth of fans,” Rodman said.
“The positive memories and smiles on the faces of the children and families are a testament to the great efforts we have put into fulfilling our mission wherever we go voiding any politics. We are all looking forward to arriving in Pyongyang, meeting the citizens, visiting various charities and using the opportunity to develop new relationships that result in our annual return,” he added.
Rodman made his latest visit to North Korea shortly before Christmas to train the North Korean basketball team, though he did not meet with Kim.
Rodman, known as much for his piercings, tattoos and bad behavior as he was for his basketball skills, traveled to the secretive state for the first time in February last year with the Harlem Globetrotters for an HBO series produced by New York-based VICE television.
Rodman has called Kim a “friend for life.”
Rodman said his trips would not be affected by the recent execution of Kim’s uncle.
Smith, who played for the New York Knicks, said he was looking forward to participating in the game with Rodman.
“Dennis and I are total opposites, but we work very well together,” Smith said.
“Dennis is one of the few people I know that doesn’t just talk, but actually lives a culturally diverse life. We have traveled everywhere together so I was not surprised with his first visit to North Korea,” he added.
“Cultural exchange is about sharing. Sharing ideas and thoughts on education, culture and life,” Smith said.
Rodman has been criticized for not talking about North Korea’s human rights record, described as one of the world’s worst by activists, the US Department of State and North Korean defectors.
The defectors have repeatedly testified about the government’s alleged use of indiscriminate killings, rapes, beatings and prison camps holding as many as 120,000 people deemed opponents of Kim Jong-un, the third generation of his family to rule.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
RSS