Dennis Rodman has made a handful of visits to North Korea over the years and it appears Michael Jordan once had a chance to go to the country as well. Rodman recently made an appearance on Undeniable with Joe Buck, where he revealed that Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, had asked Jordan to visit.
“He (Kim) loves basketball, I mean a lot,” Rodman said. “He asked Michael to go, Michael said no. Then he asked me and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go.’ But the deal is I didn’t knew anything about the politics because I wasn’t going there for that. I was just going to meet the guy, it wasn’t about politics… I just went over there to make history I thought. History because not too many people ever go over there just to have a conversation with him.”
It has been reported that Kim is a huge Chicago Bulls fan after watching them dominate in the 1990s when they won six championships. It wouldn’t be a surprise then that he would have wanted Jordan to visit North Korea, but he wasn’t interested. I wouldn’t blame him for that, as not many would have wanted to go.
Rodman claims he didn’t mind, though, and added that he only went there for sports. It was on February 26, 2013, that he made his first trip to North Korea to host basketball exhibitions.
He and his traveling party became the first Americans to meet Kim, and Rodman certainly did not make a bad first impression. He visited the country a few more times over the following years, with the last trip being in 2018.
Dennis Rodman Thought He Was Going To Prison In His First Visit
While Rodman sings Kim’s praises now, he was terrified during his first visit. He had no idea what was going on and Rodman stated he was shocked and thought he would end up in prison in North Korea.
“I just couldn’t believe what I saw,” Rodman said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to prison in North Korea.’ That’s what I thought, that’s what it seemed like. … There were these people in suits. Black and white suits on the runway with the red carpet. I’m like, ‘Something is wrong here. I don’t know what’s going on.’ They all started walking behind me, and I was like, ‘Oh f*****g’ s**t.'”
He added: “This other guy, he looked at me, ‘Uh oh.’ I said, ‘Uh oh, what?’ So we go inside the hangar and they had these chairs around the wall and then all those people that was outside by the plane started to sit in these seats. This is getting bad to worse. There was like a 100 of them. So I saw two captain chairs like thrones. … Next thing you know, they get up start clapping. I said, ‘This is wrong right now. This is not right. This is like a f*****g Vietnam movie.'”
Fortunately, Rodman would be treated very well by the North Koreans, and his fears would have been eased soon enough. Rodman also revealed how he became friends with Kim, who he claims hung out with him all the time there. The Hall of Famer said he met Kim’s wife as well and gifted their daughter a 1991 Bulls jersey.
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