I just barely do. I guess he called out Jordan for not doing anything for the black and poor community. Showed up at the whitehouse in a dashiki. Had something to do with a Nike boycott; anyone remember what that was about? Then it looked like he got shut out of the league? Even by the players.... http://hoopshype.com/2017/01/23/long-shot-the-triumphs-and-struggles-of-an-nba-freedom-fighter/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Hodges
He was one of the first 3 and D players. He played alongside Pippen (Pip at PG, Hodges at SG). He was an outstanding 3pt shooter. I never heard about his political activism.
I remember Hodges mostly for winning a three-point contest. He was the Steve Kerr of Chicago's first three-peat. I never heard about his non-basketball-related stuff. Pretty interesting.
That's news to me, too. He wasn't a particularly good player, but he brought his "A" game to the 3-pt shootout and supposedly couldn't miss in practice. I imagine he shut himself out of the league with his lack of production.
Jordan has done the exact opposite of anything for the black community. He actually invests in for-profit prisons... Fuck him. My son will never have a pair of Jordans and he knows why.
The back court was technically Pippen at PG and Jordan at SG. Given that both could play F on defense, it allowed PJax to use the traditional PG position for any kind of player at all. He frequently chose PGs that weren't ballhandlers or distributers and often were 3pt specialists. In the 2nd threepeat, Ron Harper held down that PG spot for his outstanding defense (never recognized for it though). Who was the PG in this lineup: Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Longley? Four of those starters were roughly 6'7".
While I have no doubt Crag Hodges was blackballed for his political views, his failure to get picked up by another NBA team at the age of 32 probably had just as much to do with his declining performance. He was, at best, by that time, a marginal NBA player, and it's easy to pass on a marginal player who brings more controversy than production to your team. I'm not saying that's right. It's not, but it's the way of the world. Hodges saw his role, his minutes and his production decline all four years he was in Chicago. He was a 3-point shooting specialist and the 3-point shot was much less a vital part of the game back then. Hodges had one skill that wasn't nearly as in demand as it is today, and that one skill was slipping. His last season with the Bulls he made a total of 36 3-pointers on 0.375 3FG%, averaged 9.9 MPG and 4.3 ppg. In the playoffs, his contributions were even less significant. He averaged 8.1 MPG and 2.5 ppg. That kind of production is easily replaced. Quotes like this, from Hodges book are just plain false: "My game wasn’t any different in 1992 than on the day I signed with the team in 1989. My overall skills, speed, and certainly my jumper hadn’t left me." His four seasons as a Bull: 1988-89: 22.7 MPG 10.0 ppg .475 FG% .423 3FG% 71 made 3FG 1989-90: 16.7 MPG 6.5 ppg .438 FG% .481 3FG% 87 made 3FG 1990-91: 11.5 MPG 5.0 ppg .424 FG% .383 3FG% 44 made 3FG 1991-92: 9.9 MPG 4.3 ppg .384 FG% .375 3FG% 36 made 3FG So yeah, any claim that he was still the same player when the Bulls released him as when they signed him is just flat out false. "I longed for the days when Doug Collins ran me at the two-guard position, when I was scoring eighteen points a game." When the hell was that? Craig Hodges never came close to averaging "18 points a game". The most he ever averaged in the NBA was 10.8 ppg, 6 years before the Bulls cut him. Even as a four year player in college at University of California Long Beach he never averaged 18 ppg (17.5 ppg his senior year). I guess he was referring to the 6 games he started in 1988-89 when he averaged 16.7 ppg. A four year old sample size of 6 games isn't exactly a reason to sign someone, whose one skill is shooting the basketball, who just spent an entire season averaging 4.3 ppg on .384 FG%. I think a little fact checking would have been in order before his book went to press. The truth was Hodges at 32 was not even close to the same player he was at 28. He'd become a marginal, easily replaced player. So, if he was blackballed, it was ease to do. He mentioned the Bulls acquiring Trent Tucker as his replacement, but I think it was really the emergence of B.J. Armstrong that sealed his fate with the Bulls. Both Armstrong (especially) and Tucker were more productive and more accurate from 3-point range than Hodges was. How many 3-point specialists did a team need back then? Hodges last year as a Bull (again): 1991-92: 9.9 MPG 4.3 ppg .384 FG% .375 3FG% 36 made 3FG The season after Hodges was cut by the Bulls: B.J. Armstrong 1992-93: 30.4 MPG 12.3 ppg .499 FG% .453 3FG% 63 made 3FG Trent Tucker 1992-93: 13.2 MPG 5.2 ppg .485 FG% .397 3FG% 52 made 3FG If you leave politics out of the equation and just focus on production, the Bulls clearly made the correct decision to not bring Hodges back. If he was indeed blackballed, it sucks, but claims about being the exact same player the Bulls signed in 1989 and that "my jumper hadn’t left me" are not just false, but borderline delusional. BNM
...the whole passage reeked of delusion to me too, this guy seems to love his own reality and loves the woe is me act
I guess his argument would be that if he had been given more minutes, he could have maintained his production. I have no idea if that would have been true, but it seems odd that nobody even brought him to camp.
Yep. Phil Jackson always put him in at the end of quarters to get a three at the buzzer. And of course he won the three point contest like 3 or 4 times.
Older players don't improve their production with more minutes. Just look as his shooting percentages as he aged. They were down, down, down. His comment about being the same player in 1992 as he was in 1989 just wasn't true any way you slice it. Yeah, I don't doubt that he was blackballed - considered more trouble than he was worth. The way around that is to be worth the trouble. Based on his declining production, he was not. BNM
As much as I respect athletes that stand up for a cause, this clearly wasn't a Curt Flood situation. Flood was still a near all star caliber player and Gold Glove center fielder when he chose to sit out the 1970 MLB season to challenge the Reserve Clause in court. BNM
The stats obviously don't hold up to scrutiny (beyond the shooting, his rebounding and passing was abysmal, and he wasn't even a good defender), but that should come as no surprise when someone's quoting detailed dialogue decades after the fact. It doesn't sound like there's much of anything factual there.
His minutes played with Chicago were... 22.7 16.7 11.5 9.9 One could argue that he was blackballed before he was even released! BTW, that's way below "Meyers Leonard" minutes.
I remember using Hodges in Tecmo NBA Basketball on the Nintendo back in the day. He seemed like one of the best 3-point shooter in that game.
And his TS% for those same 4 years: .587 .589 .509 .477 When your one job is to shoot, and you have a .477 TS%, your days are numbered. With players like Micheal Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, John Paxson and the incoming Trent Tucker, there Bulls clearly had better options than Craig Hodges. His scant minutes went to Tucker, who had a TS% of .584 the season after the Bulls cut Hodges. Clearly a wise move on their part. BNM
