Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-Un under the same roof is itself news. Add a birthday bash to the mix, and it is grandeur at its best. Both men have been controversial figures in their own fields, but basketball has been their common ground. In 2014, Rodman had a bizarre “birthday present” for Kim Jong-Un that did not sit well with officials.

A team from the USA was scheduled to play with a North Korean team on Kim’s birthday. Rodman, then 52 years old, believed that the exhibition game would break way for productive discussions. He said that the games would help “talk about certain things“.

Why was Dennis Rodman criticized for his birthday gift?

“It would be like inviting Hitler to lunch“, claimed the political authority. A Democrat from the Bronx, Representative Eliot Engel, pleaded to the NBA champion to not indulge in this present. Engel spoke at the Museum of Tolerance in New York City.

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Engel continued to say that cooperation/compliance from the country’s end in any capacity may suggest that they too stand with Korea’s political views. He added, “There are just certain things that you don?t do because when you?re doing it, what you seem to be implying is that business as usual is O.K. That it?s O.K. to enslave people. That it?s O.K. to torture people.”

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The then NBA commissioner David Stern also acknowledged this. He stated that though sports can serve as a panacea and unify regions, Stern was firm that the league wouldn’t stand by this. They also confirmed that they would not be a part of any venture that was not greenlit by the U.S. State Department.

Today, North Korea ranks as one of the countries that have a long-standing history of human rights abuses and violations. They have also repeatedly threatened other countries including the U.S. and boast of nuclear weapons as well.

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In 2016, CNN reported that Kim has executed over 300 people since coming into power. In 2013, the year before Rodman’s birthday gift, Kim Jong-Un had executed his uncle on sedition charges. Dennis Rodman simply commented, “I am not worried about his uncle“.