Human rights group wants Dennis Rodman kicked out of the Hall of Fame over North Korea visits – Washington Post

Dennis Rodmans odd, circuitous journey from superstar basketball player to self-appointed emissary to North Korea has drawn fire from a human rights group that is seeking to have him removed from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

After the death of American college student Otto Warmbier this week, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation posted a petition on Change.org calling for Rodmans ouster. Warmbier was in a coma when he was released last week after 17 months of captivity in North Korea, a country Rodman has visited several times as he has established a relationship with its dictatorial leaders.

Otto Warmbier was murdered by the North Korean regime. The barbarous treatment received by this young American at the hands of his North Korean captors is sadly not a unique act, VOC Executive Director Marion Smith said in a statement to USA Today. North Koreas government has a record of forcing innocent American tourists into decades of hard labor and of beating and torturing them to the point of death. Their own people receive the same treatment, or worse, on a daily basis.

Dennis Rodmans complacency and coddling of Kim Jong-Un romanticizes and makes light of how dangerous North Korea is to its own people and Americans who travel there. Removing Rodman from the Hall of Fame will send a message that all Americans are united against this regime.

[Nothing really happened on Dennis Rodmans trip to North Korea]

Rodman returned over the weekend from his fifth trip to North Korea and this time, he did not meet with Kim Jong Un, although he did deliver a copy of President Trumps book, The Art of the Deal. This was, as The Posts Anna Fifield reported, one of his less eventful trips to the country. There was no meltdown during a CNN interview, no basketball game featuring rather embarrassed former NBA stars and no Happy Birthday sung to Kim. The release of Warmbier was apparently unrelated to the Worms arrival.

These trips of Rodmans may be puzzling and, sometimes, embarrassing, but it seems unlikely that he will lose his Hall of Fame spot. Rodman, a ferocious rebounder and defensive player whose career was far more colorful off the court, was inducted in 2011. Sports Halls of Fame typically consider athletes contributions away from competition and basketballs Hall, which has more than 300 members, is no exception, although athletes and others are extremely rarely removed from pro Halls. Although there was a cry for his removal after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, O.J. Simpson, who was found not guilty of the crimes, remains enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The basketball Hall of Fame allows for removal of someone who has damaged the integrity of the game of basketball. It isnt clear, however, that Rodman has done that, although as he has called Kim a friend for life and sought to bond with him over their love of hoops. Removal would be, as Smith acknowledges, symbolic. As of Wednesday afternoon, the petitionhad 726 signatures.

Rodman has long been known for his eccentricities, but this has gone too far, itstates. As a professional athlete and an NBA Hall of Fame member, Rodman is called to be a role model and set an example for the next generation. Individuals that praise murderers have no place being idolized by Americas youth or in any Hall of Fame in the United States.

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Human rights group wants Dennis Rodman kicked out of the Hall of Fame over North Korea visits - Washington Post