A petition is circulating and calling for the removal of Dennis Rodman from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rodman, who considers North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un a “friend for life,” is facing criticism after his latest excursion to Pyongyang earlier this month.
A petition started by Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on change.org called for the NBA to strip Rodman from the Hall of Fame, which he has been a member of since he was inducted in 2011.
The petition claims that Rodman has “gone too far” with his eccentricities and relations to Kim Jong-Un.
“The North Korean regime is one of the most brutal communist dictatorships in the world, starving its people, constantly threatening nuclear war, and now, murdering an American citizen,” the petition says. “Former NBA star and Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman has embraced North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as a ‘friend for life’ and asserted ‘I love him’ as he defended his human rights record. Rodman continued this one-man PR campaign for North Korea even as his fellow American Otto Warmbier fought for his life.”
The petition is calling for Rodman’s removal on the grounds that he is “has damaged the integrity of the game of basketball,” and has more than 1,400 signatures since it was created Tuesday.
The former Bulls star arrived in North Korea the same day it was announced that Otto Warmbier, an American student who was detained in North Korea for 17 months, was released. Although U.S. officials have said there’s no connection between his visit and the student’s release.
Warmbier died Monday after he returned to the United States in a coma that he had been in since March 2016.
The former Bulls star and contestant on Donald Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” is one of the only Americans to have met with the North Korean leader.
During his 14 seasons with five teams in the NBA, Rodman won five championships and was named an All-Star twice. Nicknamed “The Worm” for his defensive and rebounding abilities, Rodman was a member of the Bulls from 1995 to 1998.
