LOS ANGELES – Basketballer Dennis Rodman had no idea, on his first trip to North Korea, that he’d be talking international diplomacy with Kim Jong…
LOS ANGELES – Basketballer Dennis Rodman had no idea, on his first trip to North Korea, that he’d be talking international diplomacy with Kim Jong-un.
He thought it was just another autograph-signing paycheck.
“And this is the funny part. I said yes because — this is funny — because I thought it was another paying gig,” Rodman confessed Saturday at the Politicon conference in Los Angeles.
Rodman remains the one individual in the center of a Venn diagram between President Trump — who he appeared with on “Celebrity Apprentice” — and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who he befriended in his handful of trips.
He continues to take credit for the two leaders meeting in Singapore in June.
“I’m not really deep into politics, but I love to create politics. Like the North Korea thing. I created that,” Rodman said Saturday.
Though during a Q&A on Saturday, Rodman suggested he created the Trump-Un bromance by accident.
Rodman said that he didn’t know anything about the Hermit Kingdom when he agreed to a trip in March 2013. Rodman said the North Koreans had called the front office of the Chicago Bulls and asked that Michael Jordan visit.
“And Michael said, ‘Hell no,’” Rodman recalled.
Rodman’s name was then floated as a secondary option. Rodman said he signed on because he thought it was a publicity trip where he would be taking pictures, signing autographs and kissing babies.
