In over before it started news, Dennis Rodman actually will not be going to Russia to negotiate Brittney Griner’s release. On Saturday, Dennis was in a D.C. restaurant and told NBC News that he got permission to go to Russia to “help that girl” aka Brittney. I guess he was at the restaurant and just started chatting? Anyway, the outlet reported on it and then the US government was like that’s a bad idea and now Dennis is not going. Um, yeah.
Just two days after former NBA player Dennis Rodman told a news outlet that he was going abroad because he “got permission to go to Russia to help that girl,” he said the trip would not happen.
He reversed course soon after the U.S. State Department announced that Rodman’s trip would not be on behalf of the United States.
NBC News reported Saturday that Rodman, while in a Washington, D.C., restaurant, made the statement to the media outlet about his planned travel to seek the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner.
Monday, the U.S. government cautioned Rodman not to interfere in the Griner case, according to ABC News.
Ned Price, a State Department spokesperson, told ABC News during a press briefing that if Rodman did go to Russia “he would not be traveling on behalf of the U.S. government.”
He added, “We believe that anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to complicate and hinder those release efforts.”
Price added that the State Department has “provided very clear guidance to American citizens — owing to a number of threats, not the least of which is the threat of wrongful detention — that Americans should not travel to Russia. That has been our message to private Americans across the board,” ABC reported.
NBC News also pointed out: “If Rodman goes to Russia, it won’t be the first time he has conducted informal diplomacy with an international leader who has strained relations with the U.S.” They cited his relationship with Kim Jong Un, his previous comment calling Putin “cool,” and his 2014 letter to Kim ahead of the release of an American prisoner in North Korea. Okay, so Dennis thinks himself more influential than the US government, but this definitely would have been a bad idea. The Russian government has consistently been making ominous statements to the media about the media attention not helping Brittney’s case. So yeah, a famous, former pro athlete heading over there would probably draw even more attention and cause an even more negative reaction from Russia. Also, it’s probably a bad idea for an American to travel to an area with a ton of sanctions and travel restrictions, where Americans are being wrongfully detained, to do something that would probably just antagonize a hostile government. He’d probably end up getting detained too somehow. I hope Brittney gets home soon, but this is obviously not the way that’s going to happen.
Photos are screenshots from NBC videos on YouTube and via Instagram
He was something else in the 90s. Too bad he’s gone full on for dick taters.
He’s just a man standing under a bridge, wondering why no one pays attention to him.
In other words, “if you get detained, don’t expect us to lift a finger to help you.”
I’ve seen him a few times in OC and he’s a mess. Once was when he was drunk and belligerent at a club he used to own and another time in a fast casual Mexican restaurant. At the restaurant he came in with this woman who looked like she’d been up for a few days.
Doubt DR could get through customs or security in Russia. He probably carries & uses a few substances that would land him in a Russian jail too.
If our President couldn’t make it happens, what makes him think he would have been able to do anything?
Why would they send him? He was successful in North Korea because Kim Jong Un was a fan of his, aside from one positive comment I doubt Putin gives a crap about him. Watch he’d end up planting something on Rodman and he’d get stuck there too.
He wasn’t even successful in NK, he just got to party with Kim Jung Un