Former basketball star Dennis Rodman (pictured, September) was arrested and charged with a DUI after being pulled over for a traffic violation on Saturday. He spent seven hours in jail but was subsequently released
Former basketball star Dennis Rodman has been arrested and charged with a DUI.
According to TMZ, Rodman was driving in Newport Beach, California, on Saturday around 11pm when police pulled him over for a traffic violation.
Rodman was administered a field sobriety test, which he failed. Following the incident, he was handcuffed,and taken to the police station.
The eccentric former athlete allegedly blew over the .08 legal limit and remained in jail for seven hours until police determined he was sober enough to care for himself and released him.
Rodman has made international headlines in the last few years dude to his unusual friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Last month, the six-foot-seven former Chicago Bulls player candidly spoke about his fellow eccentric Kim while appearing on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert’s introduction for Rodman, 56, was fitting, calling him a ‘five time NBA champion and possibly all that is standing between us and thermonuclear war with North Korea.’
Last month, the six-foot-seven former Chicago Bulls player candidly spoke about his friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (pictured together in an undated photo released in 2013) while appearing on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Colbert’s introduction for Rodman, 56, was fitting, calling him a ‘five time NBA champion and possibly all that is standing between us and thermonuclear war with North Korea’
Rodman said the reins of the regime were passed down to Kim and insisted ‘He’s more like a kid than anything’ (Pictured, Kim, second from left left, and Rodman, right, January 2014)
‘When I went over there, the first thing he said to me was: ”Mr Rodman, we just want to know, can we trust you?” I said: ”Absolutely.” And that’s how our conversation started,’ Rodman told Colbert.
Rodman said the reins of the regime were passed down to Kim and insisted ‘He’s more like a kid than anything.’
Colbert retorted: ‘He’s a kid, but he’s a kid with nuclear weapons.’
But Rodman did his best to defend his friendship with Kim.
He said: ‘I don’t really judge people, you know, by their color. I don’t judge where they come from. I just judge people where, you know, we’re all human beings. You know, throughout the day, we’re all human beings.
The former Chicago Bulls player (pictured, June 1998) has defended his relationship with Kim several times
‘It’s funny though that I don’t see how people can sit there and say that this person is a ‘madman.’ He probably is, but I didn’t see that. But he probably is.’
He also said Kim ‘wants to change his culture,’ and that with each visit Kim ‘has changed so much for the people.’
Rodman’s comments came as tensions are increasingly strained between the US and North Korea, with fiery rhetoric being shot from both sides.
North Korea has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland and has fired two missiles over Japan, putting Tokyo in range.
But Rodman doesn’t believe North Korea actually wants that.
Rodman says Kim told him a couple of years ago, during one of his five visits to the hermit nation since 2013, that the dictator said he doesn’t want war.
The former NBA star said that he believes he can help open up talks between the United States and North Korea.
Rodman told Colbert that he thinks Kim is ‘probably a madman’ but that he doesn’t see it (Pictured, Rodman, third from left, in front row, and Kim, third from right in front row, pose with American basketball players, January 2014)
Rodman (far Lleft) and Kim (far right) are pictured at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium in January 2014
Rodman says Kim told him a couple of years ago, during one of his five visits to the hermit nation since 2013, that the dictator(pictured in January 2013) said he doesn’t want war
‘I want to open the door so we have some communications.’
Several days before the Late Show interview, Rodman told The Guardian about not being able to visit Kim after being thwarted by US officials who said it was ‘not a good time’ for him to go.
But Rodman wants to help ease tensions and open up talks between the countries.
‘I’ve been trying to tell Donald since day one: ”Come talk to me, man…I’ll tell you what the Marshal wants more than anything…It’s not even that much,”’ he told the Guardian, but would not expound on what it is Kim wants.