basketball diplomacy

Puffing on a cigar and clad in a pastel pink shirt, Dennis Rodman watched as about two dozen North Korean basketball players practiced their moves on an indoor Pyongyang court. He also took to the court himself to take a few demonstration shots and challenge young athletes to dribble the ball around him.

Attention-starved former NBA star Dennis Rodman has renewed his effort to bring peace to U.S.-North Korean relations, or is trying to promote his new brand of vodka. With him, it’s hard to tell. Readers will recall that Rodman made headlines earlier this year when he traveled to North Korea as part of a basketball delegation that was taping an episode for the HBO show Vice.

David Stern is set to retire in February 2014, after completing exactly 30 years of service as commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In transforming the NBA from a drug-addled public-relations nightmare of a league into a multi-billion dollar entity, Stern’s proudest accomplishment is growing the game globally. After investing in Europe for the better part of a decade following the fall of communism in the Eastern Bloc countries, Stern set his sights on Asia as a new frontier.

October 3, 2013

Twenty-five years ago, Ted Turner and Bob Wussler answered an emergency call from the Soviet Union. On the other end were Kim Bohuny and Mike Fratello, pleading from inside a lightless cement bunker, deep behind Soviet lines. They had a simple request. Food. And water.

“I’ll tell you guys one thing: take me seriously.” That was Dennis Rodman’s gloriously ironic closing remark during a press conference he held on Monday in New York City to announce that he would be training the North Korean national basketball team for the 2016 Olympics. The former NBA star visited Pyongyang for the second time in six months last week and again met with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, whom he calls his “friend for life.”

Dennis Rodman broke some news on North Korean Kim Jong Un's baby daughter on Sunday during an interview with the Guardian. The former basketball player and current friend of the North Korean dictator said that he "held their baby Ju-ae and spoke with Ms Ri [Sol-Ju, Kim's wife] as well" while in the country this past week. While Rodman told reporters in March that Kim's wife had spoken about their daughter during his previous visit to the country, it looks like Rodman is stepping up the evidence of her existence.

September 7, 2013

It's basically a normal routine for Dennis Rodman now: have a banquet dinner, watch some basketball, and exchange gifts—with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, that is. The former NBA star returned to the Hermit Kingdom on Tuesday and, according to local news, is taking in the sights with Jong Un (whom he has called his "friend for life," even while using expletives to refer to Hillary Clinton and President Obama) and the dictator's wife.

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday on a five-day visit amid speculation he may try to negotiate the release of jailed U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, China's Xinhua news agency reported. In Beijing, the gateway for flights to Pyongyang, Rodman told Reuters he was on another "basketball diplomacy tour" and would not be discussing the release of Bae.

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