Showtime had a documentary on Dennis Rodman’s efforts assembling a basketball team of out of shape, past NBA players to play the North Korean national team. The game took place on January 8th, 2014 and was secondary to the behavior of Dennis Rodman.
Dennis Rodman is a pitiful ambassador for the USA . He’s a full blown alcoholic who allowed the stress from the event to over shadow any good he was trying to accomplish. Thankfully Charles Smith was there to try to turn what was transpiring into a positive, which was murky at best.
Charles Smith and Cliff Robinson on the right.
The first hour of the show was going over Kim Jong Un and Dennis meeting and the scheduling of the game. Fairly slow paced. However, once Dennis assembles a team of Charles Smith, Vin Baker, Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson, and a few other over the hill players, the fun begins.
Cue an incredibly formal dinner as it’s the first night in North Korea for the players. Dennis does this rendition of Santeria.
At the same dinner, he ends up confronting an Irish reporter and makes a huge scene which the North Koreans were too polite to make a big deal of. The players then start having second thoughts about the game and Dennis is as unruly as ever during negotiations. It’s must see TV to see what Dennis will do or say next.
It’s not a political affair, it’s a basketball game.
The game eventually takes place and the out of shape players lose 45-39 in one half of bball. It sounds much worse than it is when you realize who was actually on the floor. Dennis was horrible and completely out of shape which shows how serious he was taking the game. The documentary ends when Dennis gets too shit faced with Kim Jong Un (which they don’t show) and he ends up checking into rehab.
I’m pretty familiar with alcoholics and Dennis was out of control for an event that was to be taken seriously. He was drinking at 10 am and giving speeches that were just plain silly. The motive behind Kim Jong Un befriending Rodman is questionable because you’d never want a man like this in your presence. I believe he was using Rodman as a spectacle to show how off kilter the USA is as a nation. The game was just icing on the cake with his players beating a bunch of washed up players.
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