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Rodman offers to pay for funeral
Posted: Thursday June 11, 1998 04:42 PM
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Rodman called the mayor of Jasper and asked that the bill be sent to him (AP) |
CHICAGO(AP) -- Dennis Rodman really isn't a bad guy. Honest.
To prove it, the NBA's bad boy has offered to pay the funeral expenses of the black hitchhiker who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to death.
"A lot of people don't give me credit for doing a lot of good things around the country, so I have to do something like this so people will recognize the good side of Dennis Rodman," he said after the Chicago Bulls practiced Thursday.
Three white men, including two with tattoos indicating white supremacist beliefs, have been charged in James Byrd Jr.'s death.
"I'm from Texas," Rodman said. "I think it was a damn shame that the racism in this country had to go that low before someone just freaks out and does something about it."
Byrd's mangled torso was found Sunday on a bumpy, winding country road about 10 miles from his Jasper home. The 49-year-old's severed head, neck and right arm were about a mile away. Investigators found a trail of blood along a 2-mile stretch of road. Rodman is known more for his outlandish behavior, ever-changing hair color and multitude of tattoos than he is for his generosity. The NBA fined him $10,000 on Monday after he blew off a mandatory media session.
But Rodman said he decided to do something for Byrd's family as soon as he heard about the gruesome death earlier this week. Rodman went to high school in Dallas and was with the San Antonio Spurs for two seasons.
"It's not because he's black and I'm black and I'm trying to do something for the black community," he said. "It's more just the fact that it's a brutal crime where someone shouldn't have been in that situation. I'd do it for anybody else if it happened that way."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Rodman's offer Wednesday. A date for the funeral has not been announced, but Rodman said he won't be there.
"I think I did enough," he said. "My heart goes out to the family. It's a damn shame when something like this happens and people don't really acknowledge it, they just blow it off.
"Hopefully, people will look at me in a different light, somewhat."
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