Craig Hodges discusses the maturation of Michael Jordan

Many people were pleasantly surprised to hear the news that Michael Jordan opened his fourth free health clinic in his home state of North Carolina. This new clinic, established in collaboration with Novant Health, focuses on providing care to uninsured and underinsured patients. 

This is a stark contrast to the overall perception of Michael Jordan as the athlete who doesn’t care about his community or anything outside of himself. 

I figured it was a good time to revisit an interview i conducted with Athlete Activist Legend Craig Hodges for my book Police Brutality And White Supremacy “The Fight Against American Traditions."

Here is an excerpt of our interview in which Craig Hodges goes back to 1991 when the Rodney King beating happened and he was frustrated that Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson in particular were reluctant to make a public statement during the NBA Finals. 

During the interview, I made the correlation to the movie “One Night In Miami” in which Malcolm X was frustrated with Sam Cooke, but was proud to see the eventual maturation and realization of the power of his voice. This was really a powerful discussion. I condensed the interview for the purposes of this article.

Etan: What were your thoughts after you first saw the Rodney King beating ? 

Craig Hodges: The biggest part was just the shock. Seeing four or five policemen pummeling the brother mercilessly with their night sticks. And the manner in which they did it was just left me speechless. It was beyond brutality. I looked at it and said regardless to what the Brotha did, no human being deserves to be beaten like that. You had 4 or 5 cops surrounding him, he was on the ground, there are measures you can take to subdue him without beating him like that. But unfortunately, this has been the mentality of policing in America for generations and nothing has changed but with Rodney King that was one of the first times everyone could see it happening in real time. And the fact that someone was smart enough to tape it brought it to America.

Etan: I remember being in middle school and the first thing I thought was they wouldn’t treat a dog like this.

Craig Hodges: Exactly, and this happened right at the beginning of the NBA Finals and some athletes were speaking about it others weren’t but I was like, any and everybody should be able to speak to this because this could be your brother this could be your father or your uncle. And it was just too obvious and blatant what was going on as far as the racism and the evil of police brutality right there for all of America to see 

Etan: It was really horrifying like traumatizing for me seeing that as a kid.

Craig Hodges: It was traumatizing for me as an adult. Things like this is what made me feel the need to have to be vocal while I was playing in the league. I was an athlete but this goes for everyone no matter what your occupation is, you have to be able to stand on truth and for what is right and to call out what’s wrong. We as a society have been collectively letting so much slide and we just can’t allow it anymore. And we have left a lot on the table for the next generation to fight for, and they are fighting for now.  

Etan: The frustrating part is the bar is set so low. We’re starting the discussion just fighting for our humanity.

Craig Hodges: We get caught up so much of our differences whether we’re Republican, Democrat, Christian, Muslim, all of these different labels that divides us. Yes we are all humans and that’s the basis that we should be unified on. Kwame Ture told us it’s all about organization and we have to all bring what we can to the table and we all have different strengths and attributes and we have to use all of them for this fight.

Etan Thomas: It’s interesting you say that, there is this movie One night in Miami, fantastic movie, that depicts a night in Miami with Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. There is a part where Malcolm X and Sam Cooke are having a back and forth and Malcolm X is challenging him, and you’re the first person I thought of when I saw this, he’s telling Sam Cooke listen, you’re the most talented Brotha on earth, your voice can captivate audiences both Black and white, you have all this power, you can play in white venues and be accepted, other musicians can’t do that. And then he told him, you’re not using the power for good. You’re not challenging what is happening to us in society. Malcolm X said to him Black People are dying in the streets and we cannot afford to straddle the fence anymore. We have to pick a side, either you’re on the side with us or you’re on the side with them. And it was this intense discussion with them. And you know where I’m going with this. Did you ever feel that level or frustration in relation to what we’re talking about now with Rodney King and everything that was happening to us at that time. And you want to do that recruiting that Kwame Toure was talking about and that unification and strength in numbers but you see some people just not on board with it and thus the frustration.

Craig Hodges: Yes I know exactly where you’re going with this and to answer your question yes I did. And trying to get someone to see it is one hurdle, but to get someone to feel it is a whole nother mountain to climb. I feel blessed that i was raised the way I was raised so a lot of things, I didn’t have to figure out. We’re at that point now where there is enough information out for people to be able to easily educate themselves as to what’s going on. There’s really no excuse right now. You can’t say, I didn’t know about this anymore because it’s everywhere. During the 90s when Rodney King happened, we had great athletes who were similar to Sam Cooke as far as their leverage in white communities and not nation wide but world wide, and the option was, do I make a stand or do I get paid ? And that’s what it boiled down to and people were hesitant because they were afraid that it would hamper their ability to earn. And that has been the common denominator in us coming up short. Those who have been in position to really make a difference don’t. And what I saw from a lot of athletes was I’ll play my career and then come back after and revisit Black people and Black Issues after. And from my standpoint, during the time where you are making the wealth and you have the bully pulpit to speak from, utilize that. You may not be able to be all out Malcolm X with it, but you can definitely have impact. The Rodney King incident really brought to life what Black People have been facing for centuries and that’s something that not just athletes, but everyone should be able to speak on. 

Etan Thomas: And one thing that was great about the movie One Night In Miami was at the end it showed Malcolm’s impact on Sam Cooke. He was on this program, and was singing the songs that they liked, and then he said he wanted to sing a song that hadn’t been released yet and it was A Change Is Gonna Come. And it was passionate and moving and Sam Cooke dropped a tear at the end and they showed Malcolm X looking and he was smiling and it was beautiful to see because even though they were arguing and they were really arguing like almost came to blows arguing, but you saw that he heard Malcolm X. Now, I want to make this correlation to you and Michael Jordan because people still write it now and say Craig Hodges was talking bad about Michael Jordan and no it wasn’t that and it wasn’t personal but you saw MJ and the impact he could have had the same way Malcolm X saw the impact Sam Cooke could have had in particular after Rodney King happened.

Craig Hodges: When Rodney King happened it was a galvanizing time. Right before the 91 NBA Finals with Michael and Magic and we can have an impact, we have the whole world watching, all eyes are on us. 

And to think about how my Mom was organizing in the early 60’s, she was having this tremendous impact with no resources, and here we are with all of the resources of the NBA Finals with the two biggest athletes in the game and the impact you can make just from your voice would be amazing. And that’s what I was trying to talk to Magic and MJ about especially after Rodney King. And here’s the thing, in private, we all were having discussions about what was going on, but then in public, we went quiet and we simply can’t be private anymore. And now we’re at the point where people outside of our community are feeling our pain. And that’s what Malcolm was telling Sam Cooke, hey to talk to them white folks at their clubs and that was my position with MJ on a lot of things. I would say hey, you have the ear of a lot of people that I can’t reach. So yea that’s a very good comparison.

Etan Thomas: Now I’mma make one last correlation, I said how Malcolm X watched Sam Cooke on the program singing A Change Is Gonna Come and he was smiling, did you ever feel that after watching Michael Jordan in the last 10 years or so as MJ has become more vocal, spoken out against police brutality on numerous occasions, he even put together a whole fundraiser for Obama and brought 50 different NBA athletes to join him. That’s a long way from “Republicans Buy Shoes Too."

Craig Hodges: Oh yes. I love it. People have to understand that everyone grows at different points in their lives and I definitely feel like that (proud) every time I see not only MJ and Magic but all the young athletes like Lebron and this current generation of athletes, it’s great to see.