Kenny Anderson apologizes for North Korea trip with Rodman

Just days back from joining Dennis Rodman on his controversial visit to North Korea, and birthday celebration of Kim Jong-un, retired basketball NBA star Kenny Anderson spoke about the trip during a live interview with Piers Morgan on Monday.

The former All-American at Georgia Tech, and a man who scored more than 10,000 points during a 15 year NBA career, was among the group of athletes that chose to join Rodman on his trip to the isolated nation ruled by its basketball-crazed tyrant.

Revealing that he hadn't done his due diligence prior to arriving on site, according to CNN, Anderson admitted to feeling compelled to go through with the charity game played in honor of the nation's supreme leader:

"I feared - you know, you fear what you don't know ... Like I said, I got the phone call, a few hours before the game. My wife was crying. She was like, 'don't play.' She was scared of my safety. So I had no choice. You know, when we got there, they took - you know, they take our passports away, you know? And I just - I had to finish what I got into," said Anderson. "I felt bad. I felt bad. I felt very bad that, you know, for my family, you know, for my close friends and Americans and people that [sic] looked up to Kenny Anderson."

Organized by Rodman, last week's expedition gained increased exposure following his outburst at the start of the trip. Anderson was just one of the former NBA stars who sat stone-faced behind Rodman while he went on his drunken rant supporting the brutal regime.

On Monday, seated across from Morgan, Anderson agreed that in hindsight he and his teammates were being made to appear as puppets. But while he regrets the experience, he candidly accepts his share of the blame:

"First of all, I'm 43 years old. I make my own decisions. And like I said, I keep going back to it — I was upset with myself," he told Piers Morgan. "I didn't think it was going to give me so much backlash."

During the broadcast, Anderson apologized for participating in the basketball game but refused to agree to give the money he was paid to charity.

Piers Morgan gets busted up by Australian bowler on cricket pitch (VIDEO)

After CNN's Piers Morgan criticized England's cricket team in November for being "too slow," former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee challenged him to a one-on-one battle so Morgan could get a taste of what the game is really like.

And the former America's Got Talent judge might have made the wrong decision by accepting. Think Charlie Rose facing Randy Johnson.

On Thursday, in front of 2,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, the pot-bellied Morgan suited up to face six balls from Lee — one of the fastest bowlers in the world — to hilarious and painful results.

Lee showed no mercy as Morgan was pummeled by the 90mph throws. The 48-year-old journalist backed away from nearly every delivery before landing on his fanny.

For the record, I didn't actually see a single one of @BrettLee_58 's deliveries. But I felt 4 of them crashing into my flesh.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 27, 2013

Morgan ended up bloodied, with a bruised rib and a cracked wrist but remained unbowed after his humbling experience.

"It's made me reassess what you need out here on an Ashes tour and that is courage, fortitude and a Churchillian spirit of never giving in despite overwhelming odds," he said.

Um ... whatever you say Guv'nor.

@piersmorgan war wounds! Bing is happy! pic.twitter.com/jwDFtQHorM
— Dean Jones (@ProfDeano) December 27, 2013