It’s a well-known fact that former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman is friends with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un.
Kim is a basketball fan, and was a particular fan of the Bulls growing up.
Rodman is a citizen of the world who is just as worried as everyone else about a nuclear war. He said not long ago that he would be more than happy to sit down his old boss Donald Trump and his good friend Kim in order to “straighten things out for everyone to get along.”
No news has emerged about that meeting, but the LA Times does now report that Rodman has some basketball diplomacy up his sleeve: he plans to host a basketball game that will see the U.S. face off against the Hermit Kingdom on the court.
“We thought, ‘This would be awesome!’” Rodman said in Beijing. The former Bull is currently in Asia on a “humanitarian tour” to promote U.S./North Korea peace.
The U.S.’ players in the game wouldn’t come from the NBA, but from Guam.
Recently, Rodman was in the country hoping to show the world that it is a safe place to visit. The island territory depends heavily on tourism, an industry the Times says has been in decline of late due to North Korean nuclear weapons threats.
“You’re safe no matter what. You’re safe no matter what. You’re safe no matter what,” Rodman proclaimed at a press conference on the island. “If you guys are concerned about if [Kim is] going to try to bomb you guys, I’m telling you guys, ‘No.’ In my eyes, no.”
Rodman also said that he spoke the head coach of Guam’s basketball team while visiting the territory, and that he was fired up about the idea of a U.S./North Korea game.
“The people of Guam are all about it,” Rodman said. “They love it. You get a team from North Korea, get these guys from Pyongyang.”
And to keep things fair, the game would be held on neutral ground. “Play it in Beijing,” Rodman said.
The former basketball star has yet to get Kim’s buy-in, however. Rodman said that he plans to discuss his idea for a game with North Korea’s ambassador to the U.N. when he returns to New York.
And it might just happen. Kim has proven open to allowing his national soccer team to compete abroad — the squad recently squared off against Japan, South Korea and China during the East Asian Cup.
Simon Cockerell, head of a company that offer North Korea tours said that although he thinks “the effectiveness of [citizen diplomacy] is quite low in the macro sense,” that if anyone can pull off cooling tensions between the powers, it is Rodman.
“Dennis is the right guy for the job,” Cockerell said. “Because he doesn’t look like the cartoon Americans painted on the walls of [North Korean] schools. He doesn’t have claws for hands, or anything like that. He’s an unusual-looking dude, and he shows there’s more diversity on the outside than they’re willing to believe.”
For his part, Rodman is hopeful the game will happen, and believes it would be the start of something great.
“All they have to do is say, ‘Yes,’” Rodman said. “And what can come of that? A lot. We plan on making it happen.”
