Julius Melvin Hodge (born November 18, 1983) is an American-Antiguan former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and current assistant coach at

Little Rock Trojans The Little Rock Trojans are the athletic teams representing the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The Trojans are a non-football member of the Ohio Valley Conference and a wrestling affiliate member of the Pac-12 Conference. The University of ...

. Originally from

Harlem, New York Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater H ...

, Hodge played college basketball at

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

and was selected 20th overall in the

2005 NBA draft The 2005 NBA draft took place on June 28, 2005, in the Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In this draft, NBA teams took turns selecting amateur college basketball players and other first-time eligible players, such as players fr ...

by the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

. The

ACC Player of the Year Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year refers to the most outstanding player for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in a given sport for a given season. For lists of individual sport ACC Players of the Year by year: * Atlantic Coast Confere ...

during the 2003–04 season, Hodge finished his college career by leading State to the Sweet 16.

Early life

Julius Hodge was born in the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

neighborhood of Harlem and raised across the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyt ...

from

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

. His mother, Mary Hodge, worked two jobs, including as a

teacher's aide A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate stude ...

, to support Julius and his two siblings. Hodge became smitten with basketball when he was five years old after his father took him to a

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

game against the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

where

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

smiled at him in the crowd. Hodge's father was deported to

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two majo ...

when Hodge was nine years old and Hodge has not seen him since. Hodge's older brother, Steven, was his strongest male role model and played basketball in the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

at Sullivan County Community College and later in

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

at Long Island University - Southampton. Steven made the decision to name his younger brother after all-time basketball great Julius Erving.

High school

As a senior at

St. Raymond High School for Boys St. Raymond High School for Boys is an American parochial high school, located in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, New York. Affiliated with the Catholic schools of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, it is accredited by the Board ...

, operated by the

De La Salle Christian Brothers french: Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes , image = Signum Fidei.jpg , image_size = 175px , caption = , abbreviation = FSC , nickname = Lasallians , named_after = , formation ...

, in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, New York, Hodge was part of the 2001

McDonald's All-American Team The McDonald's All-American Game is the all-star basketball game played each year for American and Canadian boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the concl ...

and the First-team ''Parade'' All-American, New York State Mr. Basketball, ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ...

'' Player of the Year, New York All-Metro Squad, and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

Old Spice Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products encompassing aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Old Spice was launched as Early American Old Spice by W ...

Athlete of the Month. He scored a total of 684 points his senior season, setting the school record at St. Raymond High School, and left rated as the best

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and fifth-best nationally. He averaged 24.5 points, 5 assists and 4 steals per game. Hodge surprised basketball fans by choosing to attend

over

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

College

As a freshman with the

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ( Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college foot ...

, he was the leading freshman scorer in the ACC, averaging 10.7 points per game. He was named to second-team All-ACC Tournament team, after averaging 12.3 points. He earned the

Lorenzo Charles Lorenzo Emile Charles (November 25, 1963 – June 27, 2011) was an American college and professional basketball player. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Charles played basketball for North Carolina State University and scored the game-winning ...

Offensive Rebounding Award for 2002,

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster f ...

's "Diaper Dandy" and ranked 20th in the ACC in rebounding. He scored a double-double in his first collegiate game and his first ACC game. He was the only Pack player with multiple double-doubles for the 2001–2002 season. For the 2002–03 campaign, Hodge was selected as a First Team All-ACC player. He recorded four career-highs during the three-day run to the finals of the ACC tournament. He recorded his seventh double-double during the final game of the tournament and ranked seventh in free throw percentage for the season. During this season he recorded the first-ever

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

in Wolfpack history, and was named ACC Player of the Week after leading the Pack to back-to-back victories against

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

. He was one of 17 finalists to make the U.S. squad for the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the games was made in the mid-1990s, when Dominican Republic had one of the highest growth rates in Latin America. ...

and Dick Vitale named Hodge to his "All-Rolls Royce Team." He was one of the 50 preseason candidates for the

Wooden Award The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award, and recognizing the ...

. During the 2005 NCAA tournament, Hodge hit a game winning shot against

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from ...

after

Charlie Villanueva Charlie Alexander Villanueva Mejia (born August 24, 1984) is a Dominican-American former professional basketball player who played for the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Associat ...

had tied the score. After concluding his senior season and entering the NBA draft, Hodge remained at

to finish his degree in communications.

NBA

Hodge was chosen in the first round (20th overall) of the 2005 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets. He appeared in 14 games for the Nuggets in the 2005–06 season while averaging only 0.9 points in 2.4 minutes. On January 5, 2007, Hodge started in his first career NBA game, against the Los Angeles Lakers. Six days later he was traded to the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 196 ...

along with

Earl Boykins Earl Antoine Boykins (born June 2, 1976) is a former American professional basketball player. Standing at in height, he is the second-shortest player in NBA history behind Muggsy Bogues, who is tall. He was the head coach for the Douglas Cou ...

for

Steve Blake Steven Hanson Blake (born February 26, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. After winning the 2002 NCAA Championship with Maryland, Blake was selected by the Washington Wizards with the 38th overall pick in the 2 ...

. On February 7 of that year, Hodge was waived by the Bucks. Later that year, he played for the 2007

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

summer league team.

Italy

On August 10, 2007, Hodge signed with

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

team

Cimberio Varese Pallacanestro Varese, also called by its current sponsor's name, the Openjobmetis Varese, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Varese, Lombardy. Founded in 1945, the team plays in the Italian first division LBA. For past club spo ...

. Midway through the season, he transferred to fellow Serie A team

Legea Scafati Scafati Basket, known for sponsorship reasons as Givova Scafati, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Scafati, Campania. The club competes in the top level Italian professional basketball league, the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). His ...

. In Italy, Hodge had trouble getting his clubs to fulfill his salary obligations.

Adelaide 36ers

2007-2008

On December 21, 2007, Hodge signed with the

Adelaide 36ers The Adelaide 36ers, also known as the Sixers, are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in th ...

in the Australian NBL as their second import to replace the outgoing

Mike Chappell Michael Lawrence Chappell (born January 21, 1978) is a retired American professional basketball player born in Southfield, Michigan. College career After being recruited heavily by the top universities in America, Mike Chappell attended college ...

. He finished his contract with Italian Serie A team Legea Scafati and arrived in Adelaide on December 23 after making trips to his hometown New York. He made his debut for the 36ers against the

South Dragons The South Dragons were an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). They made their debut in the 2006/07 season and played their final season in 2008/09. The club was based at MSAC in Melbourne's in ...

helping them to a victory.Adelaide Pura Milk 36ers , Media - 36ers News , Pure Excitement
On January 29, Hodge was rewarded with the league's player of the week for round 19 after averaging 27 points, 4 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the two games the 36ers played, which included a dominant performance of 39 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists against the

Cairns Taipans The Cairns Taipans are an Australian professional basketball team based in Cairns, Queensland. The Taipans compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at the Cairns Convention Centre, known colloquially as "The S ...

. On February 2, Hodge became the first 36er since Robert Rose in 1994 to record a triple double (24 points, 12 rebounds, 13 assists). A few days after, on February 5, Hodge won his second and back-to-back player of the week for Round 20 after averaging 31 points, 10.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists, which also included a performance of 37 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists in the 36ers lost to the

Gold Coast Blaze The Gold Coast Blaze were an Australian men's professional basketball team which competed in the National Basketball League (NBL). The Blaze competed in their inaugural season in 2007–08. The club was based on the Gold Coast and joined the ...

. On February 12, Hodge won his third consecutive player of the week for round 21 by having another dominant performance of 31 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists in the 36ers win against the Cairns Taipans. Hodge became just the second player to win the award three times (

Chris Anstey Christopher John Anstey (born 1 January 1975) is an Australian former professional basketball player. His career included stints in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Russia and Spain. Anstey was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers ...

is the other player to do so), and the first player to win it three times consecutively during the season. Despite only playing half of the season in the league, Hodge was rewarded with the All NBL Third Team for his efforts with the 36ers. Hodge then bid for his return to the NBA by trying out with the

New Jersey Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

, but could not make the regular season roster despite signing a 2-year non-guaranteed contract.

2008-2009

On November 15, 2008, Hodge re-signed with the Adelaide 36ers replacing outgoing import Mark Tyndale. In the first week of his return to the NBL, Hodge won another NBL Player of the Week award for round 10, averaging 26.5 points per game, 10.5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 steal, despite the 36ers losing the two games he played in. This included a dominant performance of 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists against the

, and the praise of opposition coach Brian Goorjian, who coached the

Australian Boomers The Australian men's national basketball team, known as the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has been placed among the world elite ...

in the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, saying that he was "possibly the best player in the league." On December 30, 2008, Hodge won his second NBL Player of the Week award of the season for round 15, after having scored 31 points (while shooting 13 of 19 from the field at a 68% clip) and pulling 8 rebounds to lead the 36ers in a crucial road victory over the

Melbourne Tigers Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at John Cain Arena. The team made their debut in the NBL in 1984 a ...

. In 2011, it was revealed Hodge's recruitment had been paid for out of the $27 million Christopher Wayne Fuss had embezzled from

Flinders University Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator M ...

. On July 8, 2011 Fuss received nine years jail for the theft.

Melbourne Tigers

In the summer of 2009, Hodge attended a

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...

mini-camp but did not make the team's roster. In November 2009, Hodge signed with the

to help bolster an injury-plagued roster missing

. In his November 14, 2009 debut, Hodge scored 22 points and tallied 9 rebounds and 7 assists, but it wasn't enough as the

Townsville Crocodiles The Townsville Crocodiles were an Australian professional men's basketball team based in the North Queensland city of Townsville. They competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their home games at the Townsville Entertainmen ...

won 98–91. Hodge returned to Adelaide as a member of the Melbourne Tigers in December 2009. He was booed every time he touched the ball and after the win Hodge stamped on Brett Maher's signature on center court. He had to receive a police escort off the court and out of the building.

Trotamundos de Carabobo

Hodge returned to the Americas in 2010 after signing a contract with

Trotamundos de Carabobo Trotamundos B.B.C. (), also known as Trotamundos de Carabobo, is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, located in the Venezuelan Carabobo State. The team currently plays in the Venezuelan SuperLiga. The team has won the Venezuelan champ ...

of Venezuela's

Liga Profesional de Baloncesto The Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto, commonly known as the SPB, is the Venezuelan first division national professional basketball league. Founded in 1974 as the Liga Especial de Baloncesto, it adopted the name Liga Profesional de Baloncesto i ...

Guangzhou Free Man

After a brief stint in Venezuela, Hodge was signed in the summer of 2010 by

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

Free Man of China's National Basketball League. He scored 16 points in his debut against

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

Petrochimi Bandar Imam

Later in 2010, Hodge received a substantial offer from

Petrochimi Bandar Imam BC Petrochimi Bandar Imam Basketball Club ( fa, تیم بسكتبال پتروشیمی بندر امام, ''Tim-e Beskâtbal-e Petrushimi-ye Bendâr Eman''), also known as shortly Petrochimi, is an Iranian professional basketball club based in Mahshah ...

of the

Iranian Basketball Super League The Iranian Basketball Super League (IBSL) is a professional men's basketball league in Iran. It was founded in 1998. The current champions is Shahrdari Gorgan. The league follows the promotion and relegation system in which the worst two te ...

. Although impressed by the quality of basketball in Iran, Hodge was not comfortable with the environment. On March 3, 2011, Hodge and the club agreed to terminate his contract because they were unable to pay him the full amount.

Tsmoki-Minsk

Hodge's first new team of 2011 was

BC Tsmoki-Minsk Basketball Club Minsk ( be, Мінск) is a professional basketball club that is based in the city of Minsk, Belarus. They play in the Belarus Premier League and the VTB United League. The team plays its home games at the Minsk Arena. Establi ...

, a

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League or the Vyšejšaja Liha or the Vysheyshaya Liga ( be, Вышэйшая ліга, russian: Высшая лига, "Top League") is the top division of professional football in Belarus, and is organized by the Belarus ...

team in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

. Due to a struggling economy, the club was slow to make payments and Hodge ultimately exercised an option to exit his contract early.

Jiangsu Tongxi

Hodge returned to China in 2011, this time playing for the Jiangsu Tongxi. In seven games with Jiangsu, he averaged 25.6 points per game and was named the All-Chinese NBL Import Player of the Year.

Saigon Heat

In December 2011, Hodge signed with

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

Saigon Heat The Saigon Heat is a Vietnamese professional basketball team based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Since the 2014 season, the Heat's home games are played at the CIS Arena on the campus of the Canadian International School in District 7. Sai ...

of the

ASEAN Basketball League The ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) is a professional men's basketball league in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong/Macau, which includes six teams from Southeast Asian nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), one tea ...

. On February 20, 2012, the Heat released him. Hodge described playing in Vietnam as an "adventure" where he had the unique experience of playing alongside teammates who worked 9-5 jobs.

Paris-Levallois

In November 2012, Hodge was added to the roster of

Paris-Levallois Basket Metropolitans 92 is a French professional basketball club that is based in Levallois-Perret, in the Paris metropolitan area. The club currently plays in the LNB Pro A, the highest-tier level in French basketball. The club was established in 200 ...

in France's

LNB Pro A The LNB Pro A, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France. The competition has existed since 1921. Since 1987, the Ligue Nationale de Basket has governed the league. ...

. In Paris, he was teammates with

Sean May Sean Gregory May (born April 4, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. May was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. He was a ...

and

Jawad Williams Jawad Hason Williams (born February 19, 1983) is a former American professional basketball player. At 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in), he plays as a small forward- power forward. He played high school basketball at St. Edward High School of Lakewood, Ohi ...

, both of whom were Hodge's conference rivals in college and his teenage friends from the youth basketball circuit.

Saint John Mill Rats

The

Saint John Mill Rats The Saint John Riptide were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Saint John, New Brunswick, that had home games at Harbour Station. They were a member of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL Canada) in the Atlantic Division. ...

of the

National Basketball League of Canada The National Basketball League of Canada (NBL Canada; french: Ligue nationale de basketball du Canada) is a Canadian professional men's minor league basketball organization. The NBL Canada was founded in 2011, when three existing Premier Basketb ...

announced the signing of Hodge on February 4, 2013. Hodge became just the ninth former NBA player to ever play in the league. The club bought out his contract with Paris-Levallois Basket later that month on February 25.

Post-playing career

On May 18, 2015,

Buffalo Bulls The Buffalo Bulls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University at Buffalo (UB) in Buffalo, New York. The Bulls compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of Mid-Am ...

head coach

Nate Oats Nathanael Justin Oats (born October 13, 1974) is an American basketball coach, currently the head basketball coach at the University of Alabama. Prior to Alabama he was the head coach at the University at Buffalo. Education and playing career Oa ...

announced that Hodge would serve as the Director of Player Development for the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. On March 29, 2016, Hodge joined his former college coach

Herb Sendek Herbert Joseph Sendek Jr. (born February 22, 1963) is an American college basketball coach who is the current men's basketball head coach at Santa Clara. Early life Herbert Joseph Sendek, Jr. of Slovak descent, grew up in Pittsburgh and attended ...

as an assistant coach at

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

. On April 26, 2018, Hodge joined the staff of Jean Prioleau at

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

as an assistant coach. In July 2021, Hodge became an assistant coach at Arkansas Little Rock.

Personal

After visiting a nightclub on April 8, 2006, Hodge was on

Interstate 76 Interstate 76 may refer to: Interstate Highways in the United States * Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska) * Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey), running through Pennsylvania Video gaming * ''Interstate '76 ''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular ...

in North

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

around 2:00 a.m. when another vehicle pulled alongside his and fired several shots. Hodge was told he came within 5 minutes of bleeding to death. The case has yet to be solved. In 2011, Hodge played for the Antigua and Barbuda national basketball team in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championship. During each offseason of his overseas playing career, Hodge returned to live in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Sout ...

where he played during his college career. As of 2013, Hodge is married with two children. He describes himself as a "movie buff." His quote "When we hungry, we eat" after upsetting top ranked Duke, was the inspiration for the American Aquarium song "Wolves", and was the title track for the album.

Notes

External links