Former NBA player and sports analyst Greg Anthony defended Dennis Rodman’s trips to North Korea, comparing the hundreds of thousands of forced laborers in the hermit kingdom’s prison camps to America’s own Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Mr. Rodman and other former NBA players are due to take part in a controversial basketball game on Wednesday to celebrate the birthday of North Korea’s despotic leader Kim Jong-un.
The trip has drawn outrage from critics who say the former basketball player’s trips fail to address the gross human rights abuses in the oppressive region.
“(It’s) not my job” to talk human rights,” Mr. Rodman told USA Today on Monday. “This game is for his birthday, and hopefully this opens the doors and we can actually talk about certain things and we can do certain things. But I’m not going to sit there and go ’hey, guy, you’re doing the wrong thing.’ It’s not the right thing to do, he’s my friend first. … I love him.”
Greg Anthony appeared on CNN to defend Mr. Rodman.
“We know what’s happening in America, don’t we?” he asked anchor Brooke Baldwin. “People come to America all the time and last time I checked Guantanamo Bay is still open. Haven’t we been holding people in Guantanamo Bay for the last 12-13 years and we haven’t charged them?”
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“Shouldn’t we be the ones who are a bit more compassionate? And again, I’m not blaming us … but I think we made a lot more out of this than it needs to be. It was entertaining though.”
(h/t Mediaite)
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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