Black History Month: Craig Hodges Spoke Out Against Injustices, but Paid for It

Craig Hodges reached the pinnacle of the basketball profession: World Champion. Michael Jordan, too, got his first NBA Finals victory after leading the Bulls to a swift victory over the Lakers 1991 NBA Finals. 

But, shortly afterward, Hodges would target Jordan, challenging him for the six-time champion's lack of activism, starting a confrontation that aided in Hodges's blackballing from the NBA.

There were a series of contentions that made Hodges a martyr in activist circles.

First, Hodges lobbied the NBA to boycott Game 1 of that aforementioned 1991 NBA Finals in protest of the Rodney King beating, which saw four white policeman brutally baton a defenseless King three months prior to the start of the Finals.

In Hodges's book, he wrote that Jordan called him "crazy" while Magic Johnson said, "That's too extreme, man."

"What happening to our people in this country is extreme," Hodges said he responded. 

Nothing came out of it. Later, when Jordan was asked about the beatings, Jordan responded diplomatically that "I need to know more about it."

That, along with Jordan's general reticence to comment on contemporary African-American issues, led Hodges to speak out publicly against his teammate, who at the time was the most famous athlete in America, and perhaps the world.

"When they came to Michael after the L.A. deal went down and asked him what he thought, his reply was that he wasn't really up on what was going on," Hodges told The New York Times at the time. "I can understand that, but at the same time, that's a bailout situation because you are bailing out when some heat is coming on you. We can't bail anymore.

"I'm not going to tell Michael what to do," Hodges continued. "At the same time, I cannot go talk to young kids and not use Michael as an example of what is possible because he has so much and he has children in the palm of his hands."

After the Bulls won the 1991 NBA Finals in five games, the team took their customary visit to the White House. There, Hodges wore a white dashiki and gave George H.W. Bush a letter admonishing the administration for not doing enough to help African-American communities.

The letter leaked to the media the season after, starting a firestorm that—along with Jordan's fury—effectively ended his tenure as an NBA player.

Despite the fact that he shot 37.5% from three in his last season in the NBA—and helped the Bulls win their second straight title—no team so much as contacted him when he was a free agent after 1992. Even his agent gave up on him. No other agent would so much as even take his calls—let alone an NBA team.

Through it all, Hodges remained steadfast in pushing for change—a loyalty to his convictions that ultimately left him without an NBA job. He said he doesn't have any regrets about the matter.