HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Julius Hodge

Hello everybody,

We are right now in training camp and it’s been a blessing for all of us. Learning from Kiki Vandeweghe and coach Lawrence Frank has been very instructive for me in terms of understanding the philosophy, the little tidbits of the offense and also the defensive sets.

I think it’s been a plus that I ran some of our offense in college under Herb Sendek at North Carolina State, and I think it puts me a little bit ahead of the game.

Without getting too specific, practices have been pretty much guys going out playing hard, especially on defense. I think we’re right now a little bit ahead in terms of that because a lot of our guys want to play defense. They are like, “OK, we are the underdogs but this year will definitely be a good one for us.”

There are some guys here – like Bobby Simmons or Yi Jianlian – that are eager to show everybody their value. Sean Williams has been finishing every play, every alley oop he catches, and dunking amazingly. He’s so tough to box out, he’s all over the offensive boards, and he’s making shots around the basket. He’s definitely a big plus for us during this training camp. I think we’ll jell quickly. Even Rod Thorn, who had a knee replacement surgery, has spent some time with us.

As I said before, I believe I can fill the third point guard spot. During and after practice, coach Frank talks to me and tells me he knows that I wanna make the right play every time, and he lets me know that I just have to take a little step back, just breathe, relax and run a set. Also, Keyon Dooling has helped me a lot.

Sometimes there might be a set call but the defense may not be ready, so I take the extra second or two to get a set up. I just let the offense come and run it smoothly. I think I’ve been doing a good job at that with the help of the coach.

This group of guys, I give a lot of credit to Kiki and the entire organization building this team, because we all get along. I know that Vince Carter said that Chris Douglas-Roberts, Brian Hamilton and me are like The Three Stooges. Well, you know… We’re young! We practice hard and we are cracking jokes as well.

The next week we will travel to Europe to play against the Miami Heat so it will be really fun. I hope we play good and continue improving as a team. And of course I hope we will do some sightseeing in Paris and London!

That’s all for now.

Bye!

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Hi everybody,

Recently I’ve been in contact with some urban clothing company and I thought about doing ad modeling. When I told my mom about this, she said, “You will not do any underwear modelling, right? And remember that you have to focus on your jump shot to make the Nets’ roster.”

Good advice, mom!

I’m feeling good, really good about my chances to make the Nets roster. I’ve been talking with the coaching staff and the managers as well and they agree that I’ve improved my shooting, my defense and leadership on the court.

Right now, my agent keeps telling me that some international teams have called saying they are interested in signing me, but he doesn’t tell me any names because I’m really focused on achieving this goal of getting a spot on the Nets’ roster.

Recently, we had a mini-camp and I played with very good players, like Keyon Dooling, who is a truly winner; Bobby Simmons… you know, Bob is a pro’s pro, period. And Eddie ‘Mr. Hustle’ Najera. I have heard that he had some issues with a property down in Oklahoma… And obviously, Vince Carter. You know, having all these guys on the court playing, it’s a better version of the Golden State Warriors from two years ago.

I’ve also had the chance to play with the rookies. Man, they are good. Brook Lopez is a force down low, Ryan Anderson can shoot it from outside and CDR (Chris Douglas-Roberts) is a tough wing player to defend.

The intensity was high at the Nets facility. I was trying to get a rebound when I was double-hit hard: in the back and in one bone of my left arm. It hurt, but I decided to make sure I got the call so I started to act a little bit, screaming more than Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson at the Oscars… Coach Lawrence Frank ran my way and asked, “Are you alright?” “Coach, I didn’t know you cared so much about me,” I replied, and everybody started laughing.

Now I’m hearing a lot of stuff about the Spanish team flopping all the time and the U.S. team travelling in every possession in the Olympic finals. Man, let’s be straight: No Tim Donaghy could fix that game. That was an amazing game, with two high-skilled teams going at each other, and the U.S. won because they play defense, they run well in transition and they have players like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and, especially, Kobe Bryant, who took over in the fourth quarter. This U.S. team has seven or eight future Hall of Famers, they wanted that gold medal and they earned it.

I talked about the slalom kayaking in my last post. Well, I do like the sport although I can only remember who won the silver medal: France. I also liked swimming a lot. Not only because Michael Phelps, but also the amazing 4×100 freestyle victory trailing from behind.

Back to my routine, right now I live ten minutes away from NYC, and I really mean it when I say, “I’ve been training all summer.” I say from Monday to Sunday. 24/7. After practicing, I go to a gym and do yoga and Pilates classes. Compared to the beginning of the summer, my legs are much stronger now and I can easily dunk with both hands. As I said, offseason work is paying off and I’m feeling more comfortable on the court.

Finally, I want to set out to all those football fantasy general managers that the new Jets with Brett Favre and his long passes are going to be really better, so watch out!

That’s it for now. I’ll keep doing my basketball/yoga/Pilates routine and improving my game… The modeling stuff will have to wait!

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