Craig Hodges doesn’t speak in clichés. When he reflects on his time with the Chicago Bulls, he doesn’t just give you polished soundbites — he gives you the game, straight no chaser. That includes pulling the curtain back on Michael Jordan’s infamous practice intensity, the pressure it put on teammates like Horace Grant, and how veterans like Hodges helped keep the locker room from boiling over.
“See, I was blessed to come from the projects in Chicago, right? So I’m 30 minutes from the crib when I’m at practice, right?” Hodges begins, setting the tone. “For me, I used to love that shit! I used to love it when he came to practice on that. Man! Lemme guard him!”
Hodges, a South Side native who could shoot the leather off the ball, didn’t run from MJ’s legendary fire. He leaned in.
“And with me, I used to love guarding him because I know he’s gonna talk shit and I’m not gonna talk shit other than, ‘HELP!!’ or ‘I’m out!,’ you feel me?” he says with a laugh. “And when he tries to post me up, I’m running around in front and I’m doing everything I can to make it tough for him to get it so when he gets the ball, I’m just gonna jump… because if I try to wait for him to jump and wait for him to get to his apex, that ain’t gonna work.”
So he jumped early. Not to stop Jordan — nobody was stopping MJ in his prime — but to disrupt the rhythm and trust the help defense. It was chess, not checkers. “By that time somebody should be there to help and I’m going into rotation. So for me, it was always fun, you know?”
Still, there was a darker side to that fire — something the public rarely saw.
“And he had that ‘devil’ mentality at times,” Hodges says bluntly, referring to how Jordan could push teammates to their emotional limits. “And at the same time, it was certain filters there like myself, Bill Cartwright, Cliff Levingston… You know, brothas who had seniority on him coming into the league.”
That seniority — both in age and in life experience — allowed them to check MJ when needed.
“When he took it a little bit too far we’d be like, Yo Yo Yo Yo! This ain’t your enemy. This ain’t who you’re going up against tomorrow night. So back up off that man’s confidence and let us play.”
That “man” could’ve been anyone — but often it was Horace Grant, a player Hodges still holds close.
“With Horace — and that’s my boy, I talked to him yesterday — the way that it should’ve been MJ being a big brother, he could’ve did a little bit better and encouraging him to be their greatest, right?”
Hodges knows what leadership looks like because he saw it from Kobe Bryant up close as a Lakers assistant and shooting coach.
“That’s me having the blessing being the shooting coach of Kobe Bryant for 5 years while I was with the Lakers and being able to see how he brought his teammates with him — knowing if I can get them to their greatest potential, they’re not going to be Kobe great, but they’re going to be at their greatest — and there’s no way nobody that can beat us!”
That’s the difference, Hodges says. Jordan was chasing greatness, but sometimes lost sight of who was helping him get there.
“We understood how great MJ was and we knew we’re helping you get to that ‘Airness’ level, brah! We’re helping you get to that point where everybody wants to be like Mike. We know to give you the pill because it’s part of the structure and we understand the potency of who you are, so we’re not going to block that.”
But respect goes both ways.
“At the same time, don’t belittle us with that Michael Jordan and the Jordanares shit — you laugh about it and you don’t squash it. You don’t say, Yo Yo Yo! Cut that shit short! These brothers out here, it’s nothing I can’t do without them.”
Hodges isn’t into the GOAT talk the way Twitter is. For him, it’s not about numbers or highlight reels — it’s about legacy and the squad.
“When we hear this whole thing about the GOAT, I will ask people just this: When you talking about that GOAT thing, what is the greatest team ever?” Hodges challenges. “Let’s deal with that within the basketball realm. And then y’all want to pick out each individual player because that’s who you like or they put up a lot of numbers? Ok. All of that’s cool but, who won the most?”
To Hodges, greatness wears a ring. Actually, rings — and it shares the shine.
“So when I talk about the GOAT, it has to be Bill Russell (RIP) and the teams that he had, you feel me? Them is GOAT squads!”
And those Bulls teams? “We had GOAT teams with Phil Jackson as well, you know? So it’s like that and it was a great time.”
The pride is clear when Hodges reflects. He knows he played in an era that bridged legends — the best of the past and the icons of the future.
“I tell everybody I played in the greatest era of basketball because I had a chance to play against Kareem, I had a chance to play against [Larry] Bird, the late Gus Williams… and having the chance to play with Michael Jordan and coach Kobe, I’ve had the blessing of being able to see the changing of the eras of the game in the systemic way.”
He closes with a love letter to old-school toughness — and a quiet challenge to the modern game.
“When we came in the game in 1982 everything was inside out. I would love to see a big center like James Edwards go up against Joel Embiid and some of those Bad Boys teams go up against some of these teams, you know what I’m sayin’? I would love to see some of those teams with Joe Barry Carroll with Maurice Lucas and Bill Walton, you know?”
“We can talk all we want about how great every generation is, but let’s look at those teams and put those teams against one another, you know? It would be great to see, man.”
