Dennis Rodman Has Arrived in North Korea

The Worm has landed in North Korea, of all places. Dennis Rodman is there as a basketball ambassador, and to film a production with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters (HBO will air it in early April). Per the AP: “Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as ‘The Worm’ became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Or maybe not so unlikely: Young leader Kim Jong Un is said to have been a fan of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, when Rodman won three championships with the club. […] Vice Media founder Shane Smith said the Americans hope to engage in a little ‘basketball diplomacy’ by running a basketball camp for children and playing pickup games with locals, and by competing alongside top athletes of North Korea – formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. ‘Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes,’ said Smith, who is host of the upcoming series. ‘But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing.’ […] The notoriously unpredictable and irrepressible Rodman said he has no special antics up his sleeve for making his mark on one of the world’s most regimented and militarized societies, a place where order and conformity are enforced with Stalinist fervor. But he said he isn’t leaving any of his piercings behind.”