© 2024 Aspen Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Former NBA Star Dennis Rodman Checks Into Alcohol Rehab

Former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman waits to check in for his flight to North Korea after his arrival at Beijing's international airport on Monday.
Wang Zhao
/
AFP/Getty Images
Former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman waits to check in for his flight to North Korea after his arrival at Beijing's international airport on Monday.

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman has checked into an alcohol rehabilitation center in the east coast, his agent tells CNN.

Rodman, if you remember, is just back from a controversial trip to North Korea. While there, he said that the country's repressive leader was "not that bad" and implied that he believes American businessman Kenneth Bae, sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for allegedly trying to overthrow the Kim Jong Un regime, is guilty.

Eventually, he apologized saying he "had been drinking."

CNN reports today:

"'He has been in rehab most of this week, and I am very proud of him,' said Darren Prince, his agent.

"'His drinking escalated to a level that none of us had seen before. When he came back, I discussed with him on a personal level how concerned I was. We sat down and decided for him to go to rehab. It is a 28 or 30 day facility.'"

Prince told the AP that Rodman came back from North Korea in "pretty rough shape emotionally."

"What was potentially a historic and monumental event turned into a nightmare for everyone concerned," Prince told the AP.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.