Kim Jong-un invited Michael Jordan to meet him in North Korea, but Jordan rejected Kim, according to teammate Dennis Rodman. The former fellow Chicago Bulls star shared that tidbit on TMZ Live late Friday night.
Rodman visited North Korea in 2013, on a basketball trip with the Harlem Globetrotters. While on the trip, Kim asked to meet with Rodman and they became friends. “Basically, he asked Michael Jordan first and Michael Jordan said, 'No.' So then he asked about me and I said, 'Yes.' That's how it all started,” Rodman toldTMZ.
According to Rodman, Kim is a big fan of the iconic '90s Chicago Bulls team.
Rodman also said that people are misconstruing his friendship with Kim: “I’m not saying that I love Kim Jong-Un. No I said, ‘He’s a friend because he treats me as a friend,’” Rodman said. “And people keep missing this as I’m supporting this guy. I’m like, ‘Oh he’s my best buddy.’ No. I’m saying, he’s treating me as a friend, so that right there opens a door for everyone else to say, ‘Okay, let’s give this guy a shot.’”
Rodman then spoke on the U.S. and North Korea finding peace, regardless of what Kim has done to his own people.
“We’re talking about moving on in the future. If he does anything, I don’t know anything about that,” Rodman said, adding, “I don’t know anything negative about the military, stuff like that. I was there just because it was sports—because of sports, nothing else. To bring the two countries together about sports. Everything else, that’s the government’s position to go over there and try to reconcile and try to do something that makes the world a better place. That’s not my job. My job is just about sports.”
