Ex-NBA player says NKorea game dwarfed by politics

Yahoo Sports/AP ^ | 1/7/2013 | Eric Talmadge

[mojito]

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- Former NBA star Charles D. Smith says he feels remorse for coming to Pyongyang with Dennis Rodman for a game on the North Korean leader's birthday because the event has been dwarfed by politics and tainted by Rodman's own comments.

Smith and other former NBA players are scheduled to play with Rodman against a team of North Koreans on Wednesday that organizers say leader Kim Jong Un is expected to attend. Many of the players on Tuesday privately expressed second thoughts about going ahead because of an outpouring of criticism back home in the United States.

Smith, who played for the New York Knicks, said the North Korea trip has been dwarfed by politics and Rodman's frequent boasts about his close friendship with Kim.

[mojito]

If he had second thoughts, why go in the first place?

Expressing them to an AP reporter while in North Korea could be downright dangerous.

Lil Kim isn't going to like it one bit. These players are now in serious jeopardy.

[WayneS]

“Many of the players on Tuesday privately expressed second thoughts about going ahead...”

So who’s stopping you from flying home today, you morons?

[mojito]

Rodman had some sort of weird meltdown on CNN this morning:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/world/asia/north-korea-dennis-rodman/index.html

[nascarnation]

So these ex-NBA guys are gonna play against the Norks, who probably average 5-7, 135 lbs?

[Former Proud Canadian]

Rodman is seriously brain damaged. Why anyone would follow this low grade moron to perform for the mad dictator of a slave state is beyond my. And now they are remorseful?????

[nickcarraway]

Dwarfed? Interesting choice of words given North Korea.

[camle]

uh lemme see... north korea... dennis rodman....and they got leery... when?

[AU72]

Rodman probably oversold the players on the great Pyongyang nightlife.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

Ri Myung Hun 7 feet 8.5 inches. Ri was the center for the national basketball team of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He was nicknamed Michael Ri after his idol Michael Jordan.

[12th_Monkey]

only dwarfs are the north korean basketball team

[nascarnation]

That dude must be eating like 40% of the national grub supply, LOL.

[Mopp4]

Many of the players on Tuesday privately expressed second thoughts about going ahead because of an outpouring of criticism back home in the United States.

They didn't have first thoughts about going to a country that is a 100% Communist dictatorship led by a man who fed his own uncle to the dogs ?

Rocket scientists they aint......

[mojito]

On the video this morning Rodman looks and sounds like an utter lunatic.

Dennis may soon find out what it means to be a “friend” of lil Kim.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I'm sure Kim has plenty more starving dogs should the need arise while Mr. Smith is visiting.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Second thoughts? He’s going to provide entertainment for death camps and starving people right?

Watch out for the dogs...

[TexasCajun]

People like Dennis Rodman & Sean Penn love palling around with communist dictators where Marxism demand everyone is equally miserable.

...just not them, of course.

[glennaro]

Tyranny and state-sponsored murder do, in fact, tend to “dwarf” a pick-up game of ex-jocks.

[LukeL]

I have no sympathy for anyone who travels to North Korea and falls into danger. It would be like feeling sorry for an Orthodox Jew who took a sightseeing tour of Kabul.

[a fool in paradise]

North Korea: Where trash talking like “The losers are dog meat.” carries more weight.

[Graybeard58]

N.B.A. has beens, pursuing filthy lucre.