By snoadmin
Basketball diplomacy. These are two words we’ve been hearing a lot since famed NBA player Dennis Rodman went to North Korea to talk with the country’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
The dictator and the outrageous basketball player hit it off in the time Rodman was in North Korea. They talked a lot about basketball and developed what could only be described as a bromance.
Upon returning from his trip, Rodman went on “This Week” and rambled to host George Stephanopoulos about his time in North Korea. Rodman tried to rationalize Kim’s actions, making himself look dumber than when he tried to wear a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography “Bad As I Wanna Be.”
While most of his interview was hard to swallow, Rodman said he and Kim talked about basketball. Kim loves the sport, and between the small talk, he asked Rodman to tell President Barack Obama to call him. Rodman also said that Kim does not want war.
Hearing the words come out of Rodman’s mouth that Kim is a “great guy” is baffling to us who have been watching both Kim and his father, Kim Jong Il, tyrannically run the country for decades. With word of the country building nuclear weapons and threatening to use them against the U.S., it’s strange to see the country’s leader be portrayed in a different light.
The problem with North Korea has been its complete resistance to U.N. sanctions. The country’s actions have led to the belief that North Korea wants war. Now, while North Korea really poses little threat at the moment, it’s ally, China, is the country the U.S. needs to worry about.
As ridiculous as it sounds to have a basketball player build relationships with an enemy country, you cannot deny that Rodman may have at least started the conversation. We just hope Kim doesn’t think the rest of Americans are as out there as Rodman.
Rodman may know more about Kim than most U.S. officials. It may be a freak show, but the freak show is working.
The entertainment industry of the U.S. has a global appeal, and movie stars, artists, singers and athletes are well-known and respected around the world. So it makes sense that celebrities could be good diplomats and have the power to forge relationships.
Basketball is a much more comfortable topic of conversation than nuclear warfare. Small talk is a way to start discussion that eases into the bigger issues.
The question of whether Rodman really did anything to help ease the tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, however, remains unanswered.
If Obama is able to have a conversation with Kim and it goes further than just talking sports, then maybe he did. However, the odds are that we are in the same standing with the country as we were last month.
