Dennis Rodman has checked-out from a New Jersey-based alcohol rehabilitation facility and says he is ready to move on with his life. The 52-year-old Basketball Hall of Famer said that he entered the facility to re-evaluate his life, and not to give up alcohol.
“I needed to decompress from all the things I was going through,” Rodman said Friday. “I was trying to get this game going and get everything going in North Korea. It was a lot.”
Rodman said he will return to the rehab center every six months “to see where I’m at.”
Controversy followed Rodman’s organizing of a basketball game of former NBA players in North Korea for their leader, and a man Rodman describes as a friend, Kim Jong Un’s birthday. Rodman’s continued relationship with the leader, and continued trips to a nation that has been described as an enemy of the United States and part of the “axis of evil” has generated much controversy. Rodman appeared on CNN to try and defuse some of the controversy and explain the reasons for the game, but appeared drunk and incoherent. Shortly thereafter, Rodman checked into rehab. Rodman still maintains that he is not an alcoholic.
“I don’t need to drink,” he said. “I don’t need to do anything. I went to rehab just to sort things out. That’s it.”
“I’m not an alcoholic,” he said. “An alcoholic drinks seven days a week. I don’t drink seven days a week. When I drink, I don’t hurt nobody, I don’t have no DUIs, nothing like that. I didn’t go to rehab for drinking. There aren’t too many people who quit drinking going to rehab. Not too many people can do that.”
Rodman, a five-time NBA Champion with the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls, continued to defend the purpose of his game, his “basketball diplomacy”, and his friendship with Kim Jong Un. Rodman blamed the media for the controversy that surrounds the game, and claims that some members of the media are attempting to ruin what he is trying to build.
“They’re not watching the other players, they’re not watching how they interacted with the players, they’re watching what I’m doing,” he said. “It’s not about them. It became about me. It was about basketball players going over there for a game. That was the whole purpose. But they took it and spun it all around. Wait a minute, don’t ruin this. They tried to ruin this.”
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