Dennis Rodman says Ferguson and Staten Island protests 'increasing the problem'

Former NBA All-Star Dennis Rodman offered some pointed thoughts Tuesday on recent protests over the failure to indict police officers in the deaths of young men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island.

"Instead of trying to solve the problem, they're increasing the problem,"he said. "I've never seen it before. Even back in Martin Luther King days, they never did this, going on freeways and bridges and just laying down on the ground and people can't go to work, people can't go home to their kids and stuff like that.

"People aren't thinking about stuff like that. They're thinking about, well it's unjust, unfair. What about people trying to go tome to their babies, to their mothers, to their fathers, to their loves ones and stuff like that and you're holding traffic up for like four or five hours a day? That makes no damn sense.''

Rodman was in Manhattan on Tuesday for a breakfast to promote Steiner Sports' new line of handwritten essays by former athletes over pictures of key moments in their careers. The event was held at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse in Grand Central Terminal.

Rodman expressed ambivalence over players such as LeBron James wearing "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts during warmups to protest the choking death of Eric Garner on Staten Island.

"I can't breathe, OK, great, but what happened to that 12-year-old; why didn't you support that?" he said, referring to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old killed by Cleveland police last month. "What about that guy, 12 years old? Nobody supported that one. And that [Garner death] wasn't even on purpose. It's a Catch-22 when people select things they want to support and it's a sad thing."

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.