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Craig Hodges: The man who attempted to organize an NBA boycott in 1991

“I would have decided not to go to the bubble. At the time, the George Floyd incident was so widespread that our communities needed us to be visible – on the front lines.”

Craig Hodges hung up his basketball jersey and trainers decades ago.

But if he had played today, the former Chicago Bulls guard says he wouldn’t have played the season at Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

“For me it’s a distraction to take people’s attention and eyes away from what’s really going on,” he told BBC Sport.

“I wouldn’t have gone to Florida. This is just basketball. There are more important things to fight for than winning a game or a championship.”

Hodges is one of the best three-point shooters the game has ever seen.

Now 60, he played alongside Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls and has two NBA championship titles to prove.

Watching this week’s player-led match boycott was bittersweet for him.

Requested by filming of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, all 13 remaining playoff teams have decided not to play on the original date set for their fifth game.

The NBA retroactively backed their decision.

Hodges, who said he was proud of what the “young brothers” had done, tried to push for a similar move nearly 30 years ago.

Hodges’ plan was to boycott a 1991 NBA championship game between his Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers.

In March of that year, Rodney King, a black American, was the victim of police brutality in Los Angeles.

Footage of King being beaten by white officers would have sparked riots nationwide, with LA bearing the greatest weight of violent protests.

The beating left King with brain damage. The white officers involved were acquitted a year later.

Hodges remembers watching the footage and deciding that his platform was the one he could use to show black anger in America. And, perhaps, the ability to use his voice to open channels that others may not have access to.

But he says he got very little support for his plan not to play the series.

“The kids were more concerned about their contracts and their possible sponsorship deals,” he said. “And remember, I didn’t have social media, so I felt like it was just me against the world.”

There had been suggestions that this year’s boycott – led by the Milwaukee Bucks – could lead to the cancellation of the season.

But the encounters between the NBA and players seem to have ended with an agreement that continuing to play is the right thing to do.

Hodges said the boycott “is already bringing about changes”.

“He actually made changes in different leagues across the country,” he said. “We have seen the WNBA, MLS, MLB and women’s tennis take similar action.

“So it has already had an impact.”

Hodges hopes that something “lasting and sustainable” will come from the protests.

Asked if he thought the NBA would be different if his boycott succeeded, he said, “There are so many different avenues of racism in the context of systemic racist and racist systems, sport is only part of it.

“If we had been able to boycott the championship that year, we could have made some differences within the championship.

“On a national scale, it will take more than athletes and entertainers.”

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