Earlier this month, Dennis Rodman went slightly — okay, totally — wackadoodle during a CNN interview. (Watch Dennis Rodman lose his marbles on CNN)
Holding a cigar and sporting multiple piercings, the NBA Hall of Famer and crazy person was talking to Chris Cuomo via satellite from North Korea. He and a group of retired NBA has-beens were in the communist hellhole to play an exhibition basketball game and to celebrate the birthday of Rodman’s pal, Kim Jong-Un.
As it turns out, there was a reasonable explanation for Rodman’s behavior: he was drunk out of his mind. (RELATED: Dennis Rodman admits to being drunk during CNN outburst)
Now that Rodman is back from the Hermit Kingdom, he has courageously checked himself into an alcohol-rehabilitation center, reports CNN.
Rodman, 52, showed up at the rehab center — located in New Jersey — on Wednesday. He expects to be there about a month, according to his agent, Darren Prince.
“His drinking escalated to a level that none of us had seen before,” Prince said over the weekend.
“Dennis Rodman came back from North Korea in pretty rough shape emotionally,” the agent also explained in a written statement. “The pressure that was put on him to be a combination ‘super human’ political figure and ‘fixer’ got the better of him.”
“He is embarrassed, saddened and remorseful for the anger and hurt his words have caused,” the statement added.
It probably didn’t help matters when a throng of reporters met Rodman at the Bejing airport to pepper him with questions.
“I’m not the president,” Rodman said. “I’m not an ambassador. I’m Dennis Rodman.”
Rodman was paid an undisclosed sum to bring his basketball sideshow to North Korea. Where that money came from is not clear.
The general sentiment concerning Rodman’s trip to the Hermit Kingdom to visit the leader of the world’s most brutal regime has been largely negative.
A State Department official called the event “marginally unhelpful,” notes CNN.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was far less diplomatic.
“I think he’s an idiot,” McCain opined.
One of the former NBA players who went on Rodman’s expedition, Kenny Anderson, said he is sorry he participated in Rodman’s basketball birthday extravaganza, but not sorry enough to donate the money he was paid to charity. (RELATED: Ex-NBA player refuses to donate all money earned from North Korean trip to charity)
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