Appearing on satellite from North Korea with an unlit cigar in hand, Dennis Rodman was both unhinged and incoherent during an interview Tuesday on CNN.
Rodman, surrounded by his delegation of former NBA players, grew combative when anchor Chris Cuomo tried to question him about Kenneth Bae, an American missionary who is being held prisoner in North Korea.
The hall-of-famer seemed to insinuate that Bae may have been at fault.
“Do you understand what Kenneth Bae did?” Rodman asked Cuomo repeatedly.
Cuomo pointed out that, because North Korea hasn’t released any charges against Bae, he didn’t know why he was being held captive.
Rodman didn’t really seem to know the answer to his own question, either. He said he would “love to speak on this,” but then proceeded to bring the conversation back to the selflessness of the professional athletes who joined him on the trip to the hermit kingdom.
“You got 10 guys here, 10 guys here, that left their families, left their damn families to help this country in a sports venture…Does anyone understand that?” he said.
When Cuomo attempted to respond, Rodman came unglued.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what the hell you think,” Rodman said. “I’m saying to you: Look at these guys here!”
Eventually former New York Knick Charles Smith, best-known for getting stuffed repeatedly by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls at the end of a 1993 playoff game, came to Rodman’s defense and accused Cuomo of trying to bait the players into talking about politics.
