But Jong Il also is an avid basketball fan, experts on North Korea say, so much so that he is said to have regulation courts at most of his palaces plus
a video library of practically every game Michael Jordan ever played for the Bulls.
“Kim doesn't want to die,” Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said a few years ago after one of Kim's missile tests sent waves of fear across the globe. “He wants to watch NBA basketball.”
Adds Tony Ronzone, director of basketball operations for the NBA's Detroit Pistons, who has made three trips to North Korea to conduct coaching clinics: “He's a huge fan. He's addicted to it.”
Things seemed to be progressing methodically when the most senior North Korean diplomat looked at his watch and, Schmiel said, blurted out: “Stop. No more. Michael and Bulls are on TNT, and I've got to see if Scottie (Pippen) has gotten over his latest injury.”
Wrote Schmiel in an article posted on an American diplomatic Web site: “He then moved to the TV, turned it on, and stared transfixed at the opening jump ball between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Since I'm from Cleveland, we spent the rest of our time together debating not high policy but high-quality shooting and such arcana as whether the NBA should permit the use of zone defense.
“It was clear from our discussions that he had watched the NBA for many years.”
Schmiel says the North Korean official, who still is one of the country's chief negotiators with the West, knew nicknames of players, history, statistics, NBA minutiae.
“He's obviously one of the favored few,” Schmiel said. “And he got to watch games with the boss.”
The boss being Kim. Or, as he prefers, Dear Leader.
Their talks lasted two days, and before leaving, Albright presented the 5-foot-3 Kim a gift – an authentic NBA basketball autographed by Michael Jordan.
Visitors are not allowed to bring cameras inside and must wear shoe covers so as not to scuff the meticulously polished marble floors. There is a mother-of-pearl box from the Palestinian Authority's Yasser Arafat, a crocodile handbag from Cuba's Fidel Castro, a stuffed warthog from Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, a hunting rifle from Russian President Vladimir Putin . . . and a Michael Jordan basketball.
In North Korea, where basketball, with little contact with the outside world, has evolved like the tortoises in the Galapagos Islands. Chinese media have reported that
the country even developed its own scoring system, with three points for a dunk, four points for a three-pointer that does not touch the rim and eight points for a basket scored in the final three seconds. Miss a free throw, and it's minus one.
At least two of Kim's sons reportedly are avid basketball players, so much that he had NBA-regulation courts built at all his palaces. His second son, Kim Jong Chul, attended an international school in Switzerland under an assumed name. A Chinese documentary team interviewed his Swiss classmates, who said he played basketball on the school team and dreamed of making the NBA. The documentary shows him wearing – what else? – a Chicago Bulls jersey.
“When I was leaving, they told me the sports minister wanted copies of all my literature that I had brought with me so they could have it as a reference,” Ronzone said. “Later my interpreter quietly told me that it really was for Kim Jong Il. He wanted to read them all."
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Kim Jong-Il Is the World's Biggest NBA Fan
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