And what do you really know about Dennis Rodman?

Believe It: Dennis Rodman`s Improbable Life Story
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When Bryne Rich brought Dennis Rodman home for dinner the first time, the reception was awkward. Bryne, then 12, hadn`t told his parents, who lived 14 miles from the Southeastern campus, that his new friend ``Worm`` was 6-foot-8 and black. Rodman now jokes that the first dinner ``was like an interview for the job of friend.``

In time, the relationship between Dennis and the entire Rich family deepened into a ``chain of love,`` as Mrs. Rich likes to say. But the Riches never imagined that Rodman would wind up moving in, or that this city kid from Dallas would soon take regular turns baling hay or birthing calves or plowing fields with a red towel wrapped around his head to absorb the sun-a sight that made other farmers slow their cars and stare.

No. Though James Rich had known and worked with blacks before, Mrs. Rich admittedly worried about everything when Rodman first began coming around.

``Blacks and whites just do not interact here,`` she says. ``And I live in a small, gossip-filled town.``

The turning point, for Pat Rich, didn`t come until she hid her face with a newspaper during a car ride with Rodman one day. Rodman, sensing what was happening, waited until he got to the edge of town to say: ``You can put the newspaper down now, Mrs. Rich. We`re out of town.``

The Riches still think about Rodman`s joy the day he caught the first fish of his life. And she`ll never, ever, forget the night she yelled for her husband to come to the kitchen window because she thought she saw an honest-to-God UFO cutting through the blackness and turning down their farmhouse road.

``Turns out it was just Worm,`` Mrs. Rich groans. ``He had put all these flashing lights all over his car.``

If everyone can laugh now, they also admit things weren`t always perfect. When asked what she learned from those years with Rodman, Pat Rich says: ``I think, I hope, I`m a little bit more sensitive to black people now. Before, I never thought about black people or how they felt. Or how hard things were for them.``

And Rodman says this: ``It was hard for me there, real hard, and if it wasn`t for the Riches I`d have definitely left.

``But, you know,`` Rodman says shyly, ``I saved myself, too.``
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- See more at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-12-18/sports/8802250710_1_dennis-rodman-junior-college-basketball-ekg/2#sthash.wWLJ0VES.dpuf

Rodman has a complex life story and is a product of it. He is not stupid nor does he care what you think. Over the years he has developed a wild persona to hide who he is and what he's been through. When you see that, you dismiss him and look no further. Sometimes I think he wants it that way.

As far as his North Korea foray, remember that he went with some Harlem Globetrotters.
What may or may not know about Kim Jung Un is open to question. He was willing and able to call him a personal friend. That is something no diplomat or representative of a country would dare do.

And how do you get through to KJU? You have to get through and around those that "protect" him and feed him the news. Being his friend, no matter how improbable, may be the only way to do that. He may really believe Rodman can get Obama to call him.

North Korea and Kim Jung Un are even harder to reach than other of their other regimes. Any line of contact with the outside world that remains open is a good thing. It may be a crazy slender thread, but it is a connection.

Do I think Rodman's visit amounts to anything? The agreed upon answer is no. With Rodman and KJU, anything is possible in the long run.