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
