The Slatest

Dennis Rodman Checks Into Alcohol Rehab Center

Dennis Rodman talks to the media after arriving at Beijing International Airport from North Korea on January 13

Photo by WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images

Should have seen this coming. After basketball diplomacy, singing happy birthday to a dictator, and strongly suggesting that an American citizen did something to deserve his imprisonment in North Korea, Dennis Rodman has checked into an alcohol treatment program. The retired basketball player entered an alcohol rehabilitation facility on Wednesday, according to CNN. “He has been in rehab most of this week, and I am very proud of him,” Darren Prince, his agent, said. “His drinking escalated to a level that none of us had seen before. When he came back, I discussed with him on a personal level how concerned I was. We sat down and decided for him to go to rehab. It is a 28 or 30 day facility.”

Rodman checked into the rehab facility a few days after returning to the United States from North Korea, where he attended a birthday party for dictator Kim Jong Un. It hardly seems surprising to learn that Rodman had a problem with alcohol considering he said it was one of the reasons why he had suggested American Kenneth Bae did something to deserve his sentence of 15 years’ hard labor in North Korea, notes Reuters. “It had been a very stressful day,” Rodman had said at the time. “My dreams of basketball diplomacy were quickly falling apart. I had been drinking. It’s not an excuse but by time the interview happened I was upset. I was overwhelmed.”