{"id":3741,"date":"2009-06-02T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/49er-legend-craig-hodges-finds-it-natural-to-give-back-2\/"},"modified":"2009-06-02T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T10:30:00","slug":"49er-legend-craig-hodges-finds-it-natural-to-give-back-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/49er-legend-craig-hodges-finds-it-natural-to-give-back-2","title":{"rendered":"49er Legend Craig Hodges Finds It Natural To Give Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n
Sneakers squeak and sweat splatters on the hardwood floor while basketball players of all ages and sizes are put through their paces by a tall, thin man standing in the shadows.  He doesn’t yell, instead offering quiet instruction or jumping into the fray to demonstrate the correct stance for setting a pick.  He’s Craig Hodges, known to the world as a two-time NBA Three Point Shooting Contest champion and current shooting coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, but known to Long Beach as a legendary college player and current resident who’s just trying to give back.<\/p>\n

Hodges is pacing back and forth in the gym at the John C. Wallace Boys & Girls Club on Lemon Ave., as he has for the past several Wednesday nights and as he will continue to do for future Wednesday nights.  It’s part of his effort to offer instruction to youngsters of all ages, a practice which he (and the Boys & Girls Club) hope will bloom into a larger program.  For now, though, Hodges is happy to be here with his five pupils, offering a professional level of instruction that just isn’t available anywhere else.<\/p>\n

But it’s not all about basketball for Hodges.  In fact, that’s just a small part of it.  His real purpose is to keep kids off the streets, and using basketball as a means to stress the importance of education.<\/p>\n

“We’re saving lives,” says Keith Lilly, director of the Boys & Girls Club.<\/p>\n

Hodges’ camp is open to players of all ages, levels and genders on Wednesday from 6:00-8:00pm, and Saturday from 2:00-4:00pm.  <\/p>\n

“My grandfather used to open up the gym for everyone to use at King Park in Chicago,” Hodges says, noting it’s only natural that he now offers instruction next to King Park in Long Beach.  “I know that now he’s looking down on me, telling me to keep going.”<\/p>\n

Call (562) 599-2916 for more information.<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Long Beach legend is trying to use basketball to improve the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3741"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3741"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}