<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The players who were supposed to be selected early in the NBA draft sat at tables with friends and family and college coaches and agents. Network interviewers and cameramen hovered, and fans pushed up as close as they could. If the theater at Madison Square Garden had a VIP area, this was it. Julius Hodge was not a VIP. If this were a hot club, Hodge would not have been able to slip past the big bouncer in front of the door. He stood outside, behind the ropes, as the glitterati sashayed past. Hodge competed against many of the players for which security stepped aside, but he's not the type who would drop their names to get a better seat. He spent the past four seasons at N.C. State proving what he could do. If the NBA did not see it, that was on the league, not on him. I saw Hodge sitting not at a table but in a seat one section behind the VIPs. He wore an impeccable cream-colored suit and the smile to which Wolfpack fans have become accustomed. I said hello and wished him luck. Had there been more time, this is what I would have told him: If you are not picked in the first round, the NBA is as screwed up as critics think. Julius, you are a throwback. You spent four seasons in college and got your degree. You will not be remembered for rattling dunks and effortless 23-foot jumpers. If you have a signature move, it eludes me. You will be remembered for giving your team an edge. Oh, yeah, and you'll also be remembered for infuriating opponents. Lots of players talk, but you got to them. Growing up in Harlem, you must have learned secret New York stuff to say. The best quote I heard was when Archie Miller, the director of basketball operations at N.C. State, told me you were the "best teammate in college basketball."</div> Source
