HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Julius Hodge

Hi everybody!

I wanna give big props to my guy Kiki Vandeweghe, who helped me to change my shot. I feel like a young kid again! When I was young all I did was shoot the J each and every time I had the opportunity.

After being named the National Basketball League’s Player of the Week for the second time this season, I’m definitely back to that now. My shot is feeling and looking very good. It has definitely improved.

Just wanna thank Kiki for taking that time for me. Like two or three days before Summer League started in July he told me it would take like five or six months to feel my shot. Then I came here to the NBL and now I feel very confident and very comfortable shooting the pull-ups from anywhere. Now I’m the young Julius knocking down jumpers all day long!

Although I played a good game against the Gold Coast Blaze (29 points, 4 assists) we lost on New Years’ Eve. I can tell you, Shane Heal still can play.

The game before we won against a tough team, the Melbourne Tigers, and coach Scott Ninnis lauded my efforts. What a start I had! 9-9 FGs, 20 points and by half-time the match was as good as over with a commanding 62-38 lead.

I was feeling it. I had some player on me, Rod Grizzard, who went to school in Alabama, and Ebi Ere. Whenever I had Ebi on me I knew he was a smaller guard so I was just shooting right over the top. I got it going early… And once my outside game is going, it really helps me to get to the basket and finish strongly or get my teammates open shots. It was a big game for us.

So I think I’ve beeng making a very strong case for the MVP in terms of what I brought to the team. When I first came here, we were in the last place and now we are one or two wins away from being in third place. So I think I’ve been very valuable to the team.

If I get a call from an NBA team, it might take about 15-20 hours of flight time for me to get there but I’ll be able to play right away. No Stephon Marbury’s buyout! Actually, no buyout.

I hear that some NBA teams are looking for a guard… It is a difficult spot to get adjusted to, but once you’ve got the opportunity… I know for me personally that it’s a spot in which I can definitely play very well and help the team.

Obviously, I saw the Lakers-Celtics on Christmas day. The Lakers are for real! You could say it’s a regular season game, but when those two teams play against each other it’s a special game. Right now the Lakers are the best team in the NBA.

Christmas Day in Australia was a little different for me. It was about 90 degrees and humid as a summer day in New York. I hit the beach in the morning for my mile-run as I usually do, and then I went to my house and watched some cricket and played a little tennis, so it was all good.

Here they have an early dinner, like 4.30 in the afternoon. Then, like I said, I played some tennis. Later in the day I was on the phone with my family because Christmas was just starting for them.

Happy New Year everybody!

Share:

Hi guys,

For the past week I’ve been studying the game thouroughly, learning about some great point forwards. I’ve watched some old tapes of Paul Pressey when he played with the Milwaukee Bucks with coach Don Nelson. I’ve also watched a lot of the old Grant Hill when he played brilliantly with the Detroit Pistons. Also some of Penny Hardaway with the Orlando Magic.

I’ve watched a lot of tape about great defensive stoppers as well. Shane Battier has been a great defensive forward from Day 1. He can contain small guards but also small power forwards. I also like to watch how well Tayshaun Prince plays. His all-around game is awesome.

Trying to learn how these very talented players do on the court will help me improve my game. I’ve especially trained my pull-up off the dribble this week.

My feelings are still the same about making the Nets’ roster: very good. I think I have a good chance to make it.

I really appreciate the good feedback I’ve had in this diary. That said, in my last post a couple of readers talked about one incident I had with Chris Paul years ago. CP3 hit me in my groin area and they won the game. Then he was suspended and we played against them soon after. He didn’t play and we won. That’s it… Something that is part of the game.

Everybody is talking now about the Mario Chalmers/Darrell Arthur situation at the NBA’s rookie transition program. It was a very unfortunate situtation and the reaction of our commissioner David Stern was a good one. These guys will learn from this and I’m sure they will not committ the same mistake again.

Got to keep working out. Talk to you next week. Bye!

Share:

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!

Share: