RALEIGH -- The 19 youngsters at Julius Hodge's basketball camp would have been happy to spend Wednesday's entire session playing pickup games and practicing wild, circus shots in games of HORSE.
During the playful Hodge's four-year career at N.C. State, no one ever accused him of treating basketball as a grim exercise with no room for jokes or the occasional in-game trash talk. In his new role as camp director though, the 2004 ACC Player of the Year relished snapping his young charges to attention this week with threats to blast his whistle as he led them through a warmup round of stretches and jumping jacks.
The campers, ranging in age from 6 to 15, took to the charismatic Hodge's orders quickly, jokes and smiles all around as Hodge joined them in their warmups. Even those barely old enough to have seen Hodge play in a Wolfpack uniform could see through his joking threats to blast them into submission with his whistle, laughing as they pleaded for him to put it away.
"It's an honor having him as a coach, and I just have to be grateful and appreciate the opportunity I have to play under him," said Mikeil Watkins, 13.
The Ligon Middle School student said he remembers watching Hodge play at State and then briefly in the NBA after the Denver Nuggets made him a first-round selection in 2005.
"What makes him different [as a coach] is that he doesn't care if you make mistakes," Watkins said.
At 26, Hodge still has plenty of basketball left to play, even if his NBA career was shortlived after college. But the New York native also views his camp at Raleigh's Grand Slam U.S.A. facility as a way to work with young people, among other ventures.
Hodge said he was inspired to help others, especially kids, because of his own experience growing up in Harlem. Drive-by shootings and drug deals were common occurrences in his neighborhood, Hodge said, and while his mother was off working two jobs to keep the family afloat, his older brother would constantly encourage him to work on his basketball game.
"My way of thinking in terms of wanting to help young children definitely developed from my days in Harlem, and I remember being sponsored to go to a camp, and just seeing such great players encouraging us and telling us we could reach our goals really went a long way for me as a young kid," Hodge said. "My goal here is to give my campers an opportunity to be somewhere that is not only a positive atmosphere, but to help them both as basketball players and as people. I pretty much give them another avenue to be successful, and it's not just about the basketball skills and development. That is the main objective, but it's also to shape young people, encourage sportsmanship, teamwork, hard work and dedication."
Hodge played with the Nuggets for one season, which was cut short. The victim of a drive-by shooting in April 2006, Hodge suffered two gunshot wounds to his legs. At the beginning of the next season, six days after he started his first game with the Nuggets, Hodge was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks and played sparingly there. The 6-foot-7 wing player ended up playing in Italy for the remainder of the 2007 season before some stints playing professionally in Australia and France, sandwiched around some time in the NBA's Development League.
Hodge invited a few guest speakers to this week's camp, including a surprise guest from the Wolfpack's rival camp. During their playing careers, Hodge loved to irritate players from North Carolina with his constant talk on the court. Yet now he considers former Tar Heel Jawad Williams, who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as a longtime friend, and Williams showed up Tuesday to speak with Hodge's campers.
Some of the assistant coaches drafted by Hodge to help run the camp were former classmates and friends of his from State, including Jordan Green.
"It's a great experience to be working with Julius. He's such a standout athlete who is giving back to the community, and it's great that he's able to give that celebrity status to kids who were like him growing up," Green said. "He's got a contagious enthusiasm, and whenever he's around the kids, they reflect the happiness that's always on his face. And even after a loss, he'll talk to the kids, and they'll instantly start laughing and smiling again."
Hodge mentioned in early May that he was hoping to play in an NBA summer league. This week, though, he said that with his busy schedule, he is just looking to possibly play in an NBA veterans camp and to continue working on his jumpshot overseas with his shooting coach in a last push for the NBA.
Once this week's camp concludes, Hodge will be preparing for an August trip to Africa for some humanitarian work.
"I actually have a trip where I'm going to Togo and the Congo, and I'm going to be there to help build schools for the kids, share books and reading materials, and help them develop solar energy as well," Hodge said. "Everything I do, it all coordinates together so that it's one helping the other, so I'm pretty much helping as many young people as I can."
