206 SPORTS MEDIA

Craig Hodges, LA Riots, and Sports Activism through a Modern Lens

By Kevin Ruiz Rodriguez

All quotes are taken from Craig Hodges interview with All The Smoke Productions.

In 1991, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were approached by fellow player, Craig Hodges to sit out an NBA game following the 1991 incident of police brutality involving a young African American man named Rodney King in Los Angeles, California. According to Hodges, both shut down the idea.

“Magic said it was too severe, MJ said he wasn’t doing it. My thing was I had had the mindset I have now, I wouldn’t have played, but I wasn’t thinking. Once again, me thinking in the collective, not me thinking that I am going to step out here.” Hodges said in his latest interview with All The Smoke, hosted by Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes.

Magic and MJ met a few months later at the NBA Finals where the Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for their first NBA championship. This earned the Bulls a visit to the White House. Jordan skipped the visit, with reports citing he was golfing, which was very MJ-esque. In turn, the rest of the team including the then 31 year old Hodges, attended. The 8th man in the rotation arrived wearing a Dashiki–A loose-fitting garment that originates from West Africa.

“Now when we went to the White House, I had to make sure I got to deliver this message that needs to be delivered and should have been delivered a long time ago.” Hodges said in the interview.

Hodges, the night before, wrote the following letter to President George H.W Bush.

“Mr. President,

“I’ve taken on the responsibility to speak on behalf of those who are not able to be heard from where they are. We have a sector of our population that is being described

as an ‘endangered species’, i.e. the young black man.”

“The question must be asked, ‘Why is the condition of the inner cities around the country in a state of emergency because of wanton violence, lack of jobs, or drugs.”

“It is very important that the citizens of this great nation make a determination on what side of history we will be on in this most critical hour.”

“That jumpshot at the White House, that cost me fifty million.” Hodges said.

While MJ went on to win five more titles, Magic retired a legend of the game not long after. Hodges played his last game for the Chicago Bulls a year later and was blackballed from the NBA, many pointing to the letter as the cause.

“I asked the commissioner, ‘Why am I being stonewalled at every turn? I can’t get an agent, I can’t get a team to talk to me,” Hodges said. Hodges has continued to speak publicly about his sudden ostracization from the league. Hodges filed a lawsuit against the NBA, but eventually the courts dismissed the case because the statute of limitations for racial discrimination had passed.

“The problem with me is that okay Craig you were blessed by your mom with a certain thing on her mind because your mother saw while she was six months pregnant, she saw dogs being sicked on her people, she saw pictures of people being lynched. That was going through her to me now. What am I supposed to do with that? Just hoop?” Hodges said in reference to speaking up as an athlete.

After Lebron James and fellow NBA star Kevin Durant criticized Trump’s first presidency in a 2018 interview with ESPN, American conservative TV personality, Lauren Ingraham, told the athletes to “Shut up and dribble,” on her show. Hodges referred to the incident in the interview.

Hodges asks, “How many people think about us like that?”

TIES TO THE LA RIOTS

This past week of April 29th — May 3rd, marked 33 years since the LA Riots.

After a court ruled that the four officers in the Rodney King beating were acquitted for the crime. What followed was five consecutive days of protests, looting, and arson that took over South Central Los Angeles.

The Rodney King incident was one of the first times since the Civil Rights movement that police brutality was broadcast on television. It snapped the American psyche out of a false pretense that the US was heading towards some sort of post-racial utopia. While the greatest basketball player of all time was coming into his own, America was facing a pivotal moment.

Hodges saw the opportunity to make a statement using the platform of the NBA. The idea of having two of the biggest stars in the league sit out an NBA game would place all eyeballs on the incident as it did nearly 30 years later in the 2020 NBA Bubble following another police brutality incident.

Just last week, the Philadelphia Eagles visited the White House to celebrate their 2025 NFL Super Bowl Championship. Star Running Back Saquon Barkley was criticized for his decision to attend and go on a golf trip with 45th and 47th US President, Donald Trump, while Jalen Hurts, and several of his Eagles’ teammates chose to skip out. Every year, the United States President invites the four American Sports Organizations’ Championship teams to the White House (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB). With Donald Trump being one of the most controversial political figures in the world, champions are faced with a contentious decision on how they approach this.

The four officers who brutally beat Rodney King were eventually found guilty of the crime and all lost their careers as police officers. Hodges’s appearance on the All The Smoke Podcast, considers how the incident sparked his activism in which he paid a heavy price with irreversible consequences. In what is another pivotal moment for America, Hodges makes it clear the fight is still the same. We saw it in 1991, we saw it in 2020, and the scariest part is it might be too late to prevent the next one.

SPORTS ACTIVISM IN A TIME OF NEED

Craig Hodges continues his fight against oppression past his playing days. This latest interview is hosted by former players Jackson and Barnes. Jackson’s cousin is George Floyd, a victim of police brutality who sparked a global resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Hodges is now dedicated to advocating for justice.

“My research is being able to make sure that if somebody has some questions about this. I’m able to at least give a valid answer.” Hodges said. Hodges provides a solution to connecting the players of the past to the stars of today in a system that gives back to the communities most in need.

“Hollering at the retired players is how we can connect ourselves to the players that are playing now and we are able to run programs through the retired players that are in local places that can do things over a sustained period of time,” Hodges said.

Jackson also provided some perspective on how grassroots programs can be established.

“If the retired players that want to give that education, that want to give that game back, can set up some grassroots foundation where they live because it’ll be more organic. They can spend more time and they can give the kids more out of it,” Jackson said.

Jackson and Barnes host ‘All the Smoke’, a podcast that delves into a unique side of the NBA, and invites an array of brilliant guests like Craig Hodges. The interview provides a full understanding of Hodges’s time in the league, the art of three-point shooting, and some great stories about Michael Jordan’s time with the Bulls. You can find the episode on their YouTube channel, All The Smoke Productions.