Ex-NBA player says NKorea game dwarfed by politics

January 7, 2014 at 1:54p.m.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Former NBA star Charles D. Smith says he feels remorse for coming to Pyongyang with Dennis Rodman for a game on the North Korean leader’s birthday because the event has been dwarfed by politics and tainted by Rodman’s own comments. Smith and other former NBA players are scheduled to play with Rodman against a team of North Koreans on Wednesday that organizers say leader Kim Jong Un is expected to attend. Many of the players today privately expressed second thoughts about going ahead because of an outpouring of criticism back home in the United States.