Perhaps it was fitting that in a year where media, sponsors, marquee clubs and unstable owners have all deserted the NBL, the league’s best player departed in the manner he did.
Julius Hodge sensationally left the Adelaide 36ers and the league in a mess last week, walking out on the club by not showing up to the nationally televised clash with Wollongong.
What was scary was the source of the fiasco: a pay dispute.
For a moment it looked like amateur hour at the NBL all over again, as if clubs struggling to see out the season hadn’t already sent that signal to mainstream sports fans. Only there was more to this story than what the words “pay dispute” imply.
The 36ers fronted the media and told their side of the story. Hodge then “hit back” via a YouTube video. So we’ve heard both sides of this story.
Neither of them paint Julius Hodge in a good light.
The dispute arose after payments did not arrive in Hodge’s American bank account. This was reported well before Hodge’s walkout, when it was also revealed the import played two games without having that money in the bank.
The article in the Adelaide Advertiser also stressed that the missed payment was due to the fact the bank code provided by Hodge was missing four digits.
“It cleared my account on the 19th,” club owner Mal Hemmerling said. “Because (the bank) didn’t have the four-digit code, it was held in a transfer account.”
“As far as I’m aware, the transfer has gone through as of today.”
That was back on the 2nd of January. A clearly embarrassed 36ers management followed that up by bringing forward the remainder of Hodge’s salary up front.
Hodge conceded in his YouTube clip – which has suspiciously been removed – that what was initially reported in the media was true.
“It came out and I was upset and I went to the management and I said ‘Who would leak this story?’” he revealed. “No one had any answers but, you know, it was the truth.”
Curiously, he then went on to take aim at 36ers management because of the problem.
It’s strange how Hodge can on one hand acknowledge a story saying the payment issues were not the fault of the 36ers to be true and then in the same eight minutes of YouTube footage whinge about the club letting him down over those exact same payment issues.
As a matter of fact, it’s hard to trawl through the footage and find anything that disputes what the 36ers have said.
It was also contradictory to see Hodge play in games without pay, yet walk out on the club after they brought forward his entire salary.
Hodge took to the court on December 27 against the Tigers and on New Year’s Eve against the Blaze. Both games were in the time period where it was reported money wasn’t going into the star’s bank account.
It provokes suspicion that he walked out after it was reported the money owed reached his bank account and the 36ers moved all future payments forward. In fact, it has been revealed the club even set up an Australian bank account to avoid any future troubles.
No one can dispute they went out of their way to rectify the situation.
“To me the problem was he wasn’t going to train or wasn’t going to play until he got his money. Well he’s got his money and he’s not here, so you can do the maths yourself,” said a rightly peeved Sixers coach Scott Ninnis after Hodge’s no-show on game night.
In a blog post on that same day, Hodge spoke in length about his desire to return to the NBA and praised New Jersey Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe for helping him with his shooting during his pre-season stint with the club.
His mind clearly seemed elsewhere and conspiracy theorists amongst the Sixers cognoscenti suggest the payment fiasco was just an excuse.
At the end of the day, whether it was an excuse or not, Hodge doesn’t come out of this looking full of class.
He strung the club along until ten minutes before tip-off as to whether he would be playing or not. He fronted YouTube, but not the media. He pulled the old “take the money and run” move.
It’s fitting, then, that in the post-Hodge era, the 36ers are 2-0 and charging towards the playoffs. Scott Ninnis says it will be great not having the distraction of Hodge around anymore.
The NBL can be thankful that there wasn’t the same media beat-up seen twice already this season with the demise of the Sydney Spirit and Cairns Taipans.
You’d have to say both organizations are grateful this is all in the past and that a cracking finals series is just around the corner.
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