Rodman says he'll support 'friends' Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore
If meetings between the American and North Korean heads of state grow tense, "The Worm" will be available to help bring the two sides together.
"I will be flying to Singapore for the historical summit," Dennis Rodman tweeted Friday. "I'll give whatever support is needed to my friends, (U.S. President Donald Trump) and (Democratic People's Republic of Korea Marshall) Kim Jong Un."
Rodman, a five-time NBA champion, has maintained links to both men over the past decade.
He appeared as a contestant on two seasons of Trump's NBC reality show, "The Apprentice," in 2009 and 2013. The Hall of Famer was also reported to be among the first Americans to meet Kim when the two watched exhibition basketball games in North Korea, according to a profile by Choe Sang-Hun and David E. Sanger of The New York Times published in 2013. The 36-year-old Jung Un is reportedly a massive basketball fan.
After a G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada, Trump is set to fly to Singapore for a June 12 meeting with Kim in an attempt to negotiate North Korea's denuclearization.
When asked about Rodman's potential involvement in the summit on Thursday, Trump told reporters "I like him. He’s a nice guy. No, he was not invited," according to The Hill's Brett Samuels.
When asked again Friday morning, however, Trump's response wasn't quite as direct.
"Dennis was a great rebounder and he wasn’t relatively speaking that tall," Trump said before leaving for Canada, according to CNN's David Wright. "So that tells you, rebounding, there’s a genius to that."
Rodman led the NBA in rebounds per game for seven seasons from 1991-98. He averaged 13.1 rebounds per game throughout his career.
If Rodman is as good at nuclear diplomacy as he is at crashing the boards, the world is in very capable hands.