Two months after his controversial trip to North Korea, Dennis Rodman has vowed not to return to the oppressive state if that’s what the American people so desired.
Mr. Rodman ignited a firestorm in January after bringing a convoy of basketball players to visit North Korea’s despotic leader, Kim Jong Un, for his birthday.
“I wish they understood the whole purpose of why I went to North Korea,” an emotional Mr. Rodman told ESPN’s Mark Schwarz. “I wish they did.”
“At least someone tried,” he continued. “So that’s how I look at it. You know, I don’t want to be a hero, I don’t want to be this, I don’t want to be that. I just wanted to be, just do happy things and do great things in life. That’s all I wanted to do. That’s it.”
“I don’t want people to look at me as the devil or evil person,” Mr. Rodman said. “If I put anyone in harm’s way, I apologize, you know. If you don’t want me to go back there ever again, I won’t go back.
Shortly after his return from North Korea, the retired basketball player entered a New Jersey-based alcohol rehabilitation facility. He has said he did not enter the facility for alcoholism but that he simply “needed to decompress from all the things I was going through, ESPN reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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