Craig Hodges doesn’t just talk basketball — he talks systems. He talks liberation. He talks like a man who’s seen behind the curtain and wants the rest of us to stop mistaking the stage for the truth. When the former NBA sharpshooter — a two-time champion with the Chicago Bulls and three-time Three-Point Contest winner — speaks, the conversation quickly shifts from sports to society. Politics. Power. Prophecy. And when I asked him about former President Donald Trump, Hodges didn’t offer a soundbite. He offered a whole framework.
“He’s necessary,” Hodges told me bluntly. “We have to look at the long game and don’t be caught up into the movie, you know?”
For Hodges, Trump is not the anomaly — he’s the inevitability. A living avatar of what America truly is, stripped of polish. To Hodges, Trump isn’t even the main character; he’s just a recurring actor in a production that’s been running since 1776.
“What we’re watching is the greatest movie that’s ever been made,” Hodges said. “And every single thing that you’re seeing, we’ve seen before. You can go through your movie archives and see everything that’s happening now happening in a movie before. So, it’s not surprising.”
The former NBA veteran, who was blackballed by the league in the early ’90s after delivering a letter to President George H.W. Bush criticizing the treatment of Black Americans, has long been a student of political power plays. But his worldview has evolved into something deeper than Democrat vs. Republican.
He sees it as a spiritual battle. A war between truth and illusion. And the so-called “leaders” are just props.
“Our Master teaches us, we are in it, but we are not of it,” Hodges explained. “So we’re here, but I ain’t gotta partake in that garbage.”
The garbage, in his words, is the recycled spectacle of American electoral politics. Whether it’s Trump or Biden, Obama or Bush, Hodges believes the real decision-makers wear tailored suits on Wall Street — not the White House.
“To me, Trump and Biden? It’s a uniparty. Two wings of the same bird,” Hodges said. “And the bird don’t fly for us.”
That’s not a new theme in his rhetoric. He’s been speaking this truth since his NBA days — when he tried to organize players into a collective consciousness of activism and economic self-determination. Now, in 2025, with disinformation rampant and trust in institutions crumbling, Hodges feels vindicated.
“We’ve been losing jobs since we’ve been in America, shit!” he says, voice rising. “When we were fully employed, y’all didn’t have a problem with us — because we were totally enslaved.”
For Hodges, the American economy has never been for Black folks. From slavery to sharecropping, from redlining to underfunded schools, he sees a nation addicted to Black labor — and allergic to Black power.
So when Trump sat with billionaires and signed executive orders, Hodges didn’t flinch. He just asked, “Why didn’t Barack do the same for us?”
“I ain’t saying I support Trump,” Hodges clarified. “I’m saying look at what he’s allowed to do — because of who he answers to. It’s billionaires sitting around the table with him, man!”
That’s the deeper wound for Hodges. Not just that power is corrupt, but that even so-called “Black excellence” hasn’t figured out how to truly claim it.
“You look at where the money lies and everyone knows. Everyone is afraid,” he said. “If we were to be organized, we would have a political faction, a financial establishment, a generation of young men and women who are capable of being politically powerful.”
That word — organized — is Hodges’ heartbeat.
He believes the future lies in building economic independence, embracing cryptocurrency, creating self-funded media, and building tech tools that don’t rely on institutions that historically shut Black voices out. He sees figures like Kyrie Irving and Kanye West not as perfect messengers — but as cautionary tales of what happens when you speak too loud without a financial or institutional shield.
“You get punished,” Hodges said. “Look at what they did to Kyrie. Look at what they did to Ye. And ask yourself — was it really about what they said? Or about who they offended?”
His answer is clear: it was about money and influence — and who controls the levers of both.
Hodges draws connections between domestic policy and foreign affairs, especially the war in Gaza. He invokes Old Testament law — “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life” — and questions how American politicians can justify support for global violence while claiming moral high ground at home.
His frustration extends to the Democratic establishment — especially President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“They won’t step up to the plate and say that this dude is incompetent from Day 1,” Hodges said of Biden. “We can’t say that because it’s ‘politically incorrect.’ And then you wanna give me Kamala Harris? Nah, man.”
He doesn’t blame the system for being what it is. He blames us — for still expecting it to save us.
“We didn’t say Democrats and Republicans we want y’all to sit down and listen to what we need over here… but we ain’t unified like that.”
Unity, for Hodges, is the missing piece. It’s not about waiting for another Barack or denouncing another Trump. It’s about organization, ownership, and truth-telling. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially when it is.
“It’s a game, man,” Hodges said one more time, with a sigh. “And I hope we can see where we sit — because it’s getting ready to get REALLY hectic.”
That’s not just a warning.
That’s a veteran of systems — sports, politics, society — reminding us that freedom doesn’t come from watching the play. It comes from writing a new one.
