Julius Hodge

Julius Hodge - Since leaving the NBA, Hodge has put up superstar numbers in a variety of leagues. He put up 19/8/9 in the D-League down the stretch of the 2006/07 season, put up 24/8/6 in the same place at the end of the 2007/08 season, and in between the two averaged 25/9/6 in Australia. He went back to Australia for 2008/09 and averaged 26/8/6, but left in acrimonious circumstances, and saw out the season averaging 12/6/6 in France. A further 18/5/6 in Australia followed last year, and this summer he played in the Chinese NBL league - a summertime campaign without the calibre or prestige of the main CBA - putting up 29/9/7. Included in that last stint were statlines like 30 points, 20 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals, or 48/17/5, although these say more about the standard of the league. Hodge fell out of the NBA because he wasn't hugely athletic, couldn't defend the point guard position at the NBA level, and had a very poor outside jumpshot. These things are still true. It also didn't help that he got shot. But he's putting up huge numbers regardless, and should probably look for a better quality of employment.

[...] Schenscher recently played in the Foot Locker High Stakes Hoops tournament, which rank from April 6th to the 11th. Eight teams are playing in a summer time tournament with $250,000 (Australian) in prize money; it runs independently of the NBL league season, features some funky rules (such as bonus points for winning individual quarters), and one particularly funky rule involving 4 point shots. This was the tournament's inaugural season; others who took part in it included Lance Allred, Sean Lampley, Corey Williams, Julius Hodge, and the eventual champions were the simply named "Rays," who had on their roster former St Mary's big man Ben Allen.

- Julius Hodge

Hodge burnt a lot of bridges in Australia last year. He was playing to a LeBron-like standard, outrageously good for a guard without a jumpshot, but then he walked out on the Adelaide 36ers amid a wave of controversy. Various reasons were cited ranging from racial taunting in the crowd to a payment dispute; whatever the reasons, things got acrimonious and then some. Yet apparently Hodge didn't burn every bridge there, because against all odds, he returned to the country (if not the 36ers) to play again this season. In the now-completed NBL regular season, Hodge averaged 17.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists for the Melbourne Tigers. And in typical Julius Hodge fashion, he shot 49% from the field, 59% from the foul line, and 0% from three point range.