NEW YORK – Dennis Rodman is going back to North Korea and bringing a team of former NBA players with him. Days after returning from his second trip to visit Kim Jong Un — in which he said he became the first foreigner to hold the leader's newborn daughter — Rodman announced plans Monday to stage two exhibition games in North Korea in January. The first will be Jan. 8, Kim's birthday — the other two days later.
Rodman's friendship with the autocratic leader has been criticized — and led to a couple of testy exchanges during a Manhattan news conference. But Rodman insists Kim is a good person, wants to have better relations with the United States and that he's the one who can help make it happen with his plan for "basketball diplomacy."
Touting his friendship with Kim and taunting President Obama for not talking to Kim, Rodman said he will go back to North Korea for a week in December to help select local players for the game. He hopes to have stars such as former Chicago teammate Scottie Pippen and Karl Malone. "Michael Jordan, he won't do it, because he's Michael Jordan," he said. Rodman said Kim has asked him to train his players to compete in the 2016 Olympics.
Rodman first met Kim, a basketball fan, when traveling to North Korea in February for a film project. Though saying he didn't want to discuss politics, Rodman raised his voice when answering a questioner about Kim's human rights record and portrayed himself as the person who could make outsiders see the young leader as different from his father and grandfather. "He has to do his job but he's a very good guy," Rodman said.
associated Press
John and John coming in late November
It'll be Elton John and John Mayer on back-to-back nights in November in the Twin Cities. Elton is booked at Xcel Energy Center on Nov. 22 as part of his tour to promote "The Diving Board," the T Bone Burnett-produced album that springs forth on Sept. 24. Tickets, priced from $49 to $149, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday at Xcel box office and Ticketmaster outlets. Mayer is set for Nov. 23 at Target Center, promoting his new album "Paradise Valley." Ticket details haven't been announced yet but they are expected to go on sale the weekend of Sept. 20. In other concert news, Irish noise-rock gods My Bloody Valentine will make their first Twin Cities appearance in more than two decades on Nov. 1 at Roy Wilkins Auditorium. Tickets, costing $35, will go on sale at 11 a.m. Saturday via Ticketmaster.
jon bream
