Craig Hodges reached the pinnacle of the basketball profession: World Champion. Michael Jordan, too, got his first NBA Finals victory after leading the Bulls to a swift victory over the Lakers 1991 NBA Finals.
But, shortly afterward, Hodges would target Jordan, challenging him for the six-time champion's lack of activism, starting a confrontation that aided in Hodges's blackballing from the NBA.
There were a series of contentions that made Hodges a martyr in activist circles.
First, Hodges lobbied the NBA to boycott Game 1 of that aforementioned 1991 NBA Finals in protest of the Rodney King beating, which saw four white policeman brutally baton a defenseless King three months prior to the start of the Finals.