Originally published as "No Rebound" on June 1, 2003, in The New York Times Magazine. Footnotes from the author are included throughout the story.

When Dennis Rodman flew to Rome on the heels of a Vice-organized trip to North Korea (a week later the DPRK abandoned a 60-year-old ceasefire agreement, so, strong work), we all kind of assumed that this was part of Rodman's new career as a diplomat. The selfless Worm, just working for international relations and…

Dennis Rodman is currently headed to the Vatican to try and arrange a meeting with the soon-to-be-elected Pope. This trip comes on the heels of Rodman's visit to North Korea, where he became super good buddies with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. So I guess this is just what Dennis Rodman does now. Neat.

BFFs Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un have now had their friendship immortalized by the internet jokesters at Official Comedy. Enjoy this re-imagining of arcade classic NBA Jam, in which supreme ruler Kim Jong Un reigns...uh...supreme.

We'll just let the lede from this story in the New York Post speak for itself, because it is great:

Sean gave Rick Reilly's column a thorough fisking earlier, but here's one more thing. Remember: The conceit is that these are Dennis Rodman's hypothetical reports from present-day global hot spots. Emphasis mine:

Rick Reilly dropped another column today and I figure we should just break it down for everyone because, if you're anything like me, a lot of the higher-brow jokes sometimes goes right over your head. So, we're going to workshop this one.

Since we are talking mid-nineties Bulls players, we are also talking Kim Jong Un. Apparently Dennis Rodman was not the first member of the Chicago juggernaut to meet Kim Jong Un. That honor belongs to...Toni Kukoc? Apparently, so!

Dennis Rodman is back from his whirlwind tour of North Korea and he comes with some interesting news: Kim Jong Un is basically Mikey from Swingers.

Dennis Rodman's bizarre visit to North Korea has led to many dissections of North Korea's strange relationship with basketball—or rather, the Kim family's strange relationship with basketball—and one happy consequence is the opportunity to remember that, despite the Kim family's love for the NBA, they sometimes ignore…