Rehabbed Rodman: I'm Not an Alcoholic

My name is Dennis, and I’m not an alcoholic.

That’s the message NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman gave to ESPN upon his emergence from three weeks in a New Jersey treatment facility. “I needed to decompress from all the things I was going through,” Rodman told ESPN Friday by telephone. “I was trying to get this game going and get everything going in North Korea. It was a lot.”

Rodman doesn’t plan on becoming a teetotaler. He does plan on returning to North Korea. 

Rodman made international headlines last month by overseeing a trip to North Korea by former NBA stars. The strange junket to the Hermit Kingdom featured stranger behavior by Rodman, including serenading dictator Kim Jong-un with a “Happy Birthday” and an on-air CNN meltdown that witnessed the five-time NBA champion blame an American missionary imprisoned in North Korea for his captivity.

The 1990s rebounding king hopes to rebound from his not-so-excellent adventure abroad. “I’m not an alcoholic,” Rodman insisted. “An alcoholic drinks seven days a week. I don’t drink seven days a week. When I drink, I don’t hurt nobody, I don’t have no DUIs, nothing like that.