One outlandish former athlete lashed out at another one, this time over international diplomacy: Mike Tyson slammed Dennis Rodman for traveling to North Korea to pal around with Kim Jong Un. The boxer went so far as to speculate that Rodman had committed treason and would be arrested upon his return to American soil.
“Look, nobody can stop me from making a fool of myself, but that was some really, some really bad stuff,” Tyson told local sports radio station 94WIP. “It wasn’t even funny. It was like, a [fictional] scene. You couldn’t even believe that’s real. If I would have woke up in the middle of that, I would have thought it was a sketch or something.”
Tyson expressed concern over the former NBA players that traveled with Rodman, saying their trip could cost them any form of involvement in the league in the future. NBA commissioner David Stern spoke out against Rodman’s “basketball diplomacy” delegation last week.
“It’s treason. It’s treason, 100 percent. Look, I’m not politically inclined or anything, but when you examine what treason is, it’s treason,” he added. “He’s in another land, that’s an enemy of our land, and he’s talking [expletive] on us. He’s talking really bad to our guys over there.”
Rodman’s apparent defense of Kim for the imprisonment of American Kenneth Bae for unknown reasons also angered Tyson. “You become [Kim’s] lackey. He must have paid them with money, I’m sure he’s getting paid. I’m sure Dennis is not doing this out of the kindness of his heart,” he said.
Tyson, who is in the midst of promoting his one-man show The Undisputed Truth, said, when asked, that he won’t be taking it to North Korea .