Basketball - Julius Hodge Ready To Leave The Past Beh

I am sure Julius Hodge never anticipated his entry into NBA would be like what it turned out to be. Hodge played for North Carolina State and was the 20th overall pick in the 2005 draft when he was selected by the Denver Nuggets. However, he hardly played in his first year at NBA and in April 2006, he nearly lost his life when a gunman pulled by his car as he was leaving a Denver nightclub. Hodge was shot five times and three of the bullets cut through his legs.

Hodge is a native of New York City and he does not want to dwell over those difficult days and he was hurt and upset when he heard about the shooting death of Darrent Williams in a similar shooting incident.

Hodge was traded to Milwaukee Bucks recently and it resulted in Earl Boykins too joining the Bucks. Now, Hodge just wants to concentrate on his playing and wants to revive his basketball career.

For Hodge, coming to the Bucks is like a new beginning. Hodge thinks that the Bucks have a great atmosphere and he is just looking forward to the future.

This season Hodge played nine games with the Colorado entry in the NBA Development League and he played just four games for the Denver Nugget. Hodge feels that the trade was a bless as he was tired of working the hardest and not getting a chance to play.

Hodge was quite a sensation during his collegiate career. He finished as the third leading scorer in North Carolina State history with 2,040 points. He became the third player in history of Atlantic Coast Conference to score more than 2,000 points, 400 assists and 700 rebounds. The other two players are Danny Ferry from Duke and Bob Sura from Florida State.

Hodge also led the Wolfpack to the Sweet 16 in his senior year and in the bargain he made sure that he knocked out a team from Connecticut which had Charlie Villanueva, his teammate at Bucks.