NBA legend Dennis Rodman reunites with estranged father in the Philippines

After over 40 years, a teary-eyed Philander Rodman Jr. finally reunited with his son, NBA superstar and Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, according to a Balitanghali report on July 19. Based on the report, this was also the first time that Dennnis Rodman called Philander Jr. "father." And although their encounter was short, this was supposedly enough for Philander Jr. The NBA legend acknowledged his father for the first time during a timeout in Wednesday's PLDT All-Star Basketball Challenge at the Mall Of Asia Arena. According to the Balitanghali report, the two also spoke for a moment after the game. In 2006, Philander Rodman Jr. attempted to reunite with his son, who was in the Philippines for an exhibition game. However, he was blocked by bodyguards of the NBA legend. A member of the U.S. Air Force and a Vietnam War veteran, the elder Rodman abandoned Dennis Rodman and his mother, Shirley, when Dennis was only five years old. "I'm pretty sure you know all about that. I'm not really interested in trying to have a family reunion. I'm here to play a basketball game for the people here in the Philippines," Rodman said in 2006. "I'm sorry that things haven't come together like they should be. But it's not my fault. I've been trying. Just give me a little bit of your time," Dennis Rodman's father said in the same year. Unable to communicate with his son, Philander Jr. would write messages on a copy of Rodman's biography "Bad As I Wanna Be." Posters of the retired NBA superstar decorate Philander Jr's Rodman Burger Stand in Angeles City, Pampanga, where the 71-year-old has lived since the early 1970s. Despite not being able to reach his son six years ago, Philander Jr. decided to head for Manila after finding out his son was in the country. According to Kristina Scarfold, the caretaker of Rodman Burger Stand, it was on 24 Oras that the elder Rodman learned his son was in the Philippines again. "Doon na natiyempohan niya sa 24 Oras. Sabi ko, 'Kuya, si Dennis, si Dennis! Excited siya, hindi niya talagang malaman," Scarfold said. The night before they finally met, Dennis said that he did not hate his father. "I don't hate the guy that brought me into this world. I don't hate him. It's just the fact that I haven't seen him in 47 years. And the fact that if I saw him, I'd just tell him, you know what, you know, you're a friend of mine. Like I said, I don't hate anybody in the world. I hope that if he wants to come to the game and shake my hand, I hope that everything would be cool," Dennis said, during a press conference on July 17. - Carmela Lapeña / AMD, GMA News