NBA | Happy to have any chance

DENVER — For Julius Hodge, a mere eighth of an inch might have been the difference between life and death.

On April 8 at about 2 a.m., the Denver Nuggets guard was shot four times by an unknown passer-by while he was driving home with a friend from a nightclub in north Denver. One bullet lodged in his left thigh near an artery.

"The doctor told me that if it would have hit the artery I would have died in five minutes," Hodge said. "I didn't get to go to the hospital for 25 minutes. That whole situation was in God's hands. If it weren't for him, I would be in a casket. He wanted me to see my nephews. He wanted me to be a good person and learn from that."

The shooting — still unsolved — sidelined Hodge for the rest of what was a nightmarish rookie season.

Now, more than six months later, Hodge is trying to get back to full health and working on salvaging his short but star-crossed pro career. Hodge, 6 feet 7, dreams of becoming a starting point guard in the NBA. Right now he would settle for getting back on the court and showing he belongs.

"One of my long-term goals in the NBA is to make the All-Star Game," Hodge said. "Once I do that, I guess I can put the book I'm writing right now in the [stores]."

Hodge missed playing for the Nuggets' summer league team while recovering from the gunshot wounds, along with a foot infection. He practiced for the first time in training camp last week. He hopes to begin "full participation" in practice early this week when the Nuggets return from an exhibition road trip.

While there's almost no footage of Hodge in a Nuggets uniform, he believes his play in practice and in the NBA Development League proves he belongs in the NBA.

"Things are going to turn around," Hodge said. "I have a potential to be a really good point guard in this league."

Hodge played last season for Austin in the NBADL, where he was coached by former all-star point guard Dennis Johnson.

"He's got a little ways to go, he really does," Johnson said. "All point guards, even when you're that big, you got to get your teammates' confidence in you. You have to pass a bit. You have to find your teammates. He has to get stronger. Steadier with the ball. He has an awkward jump shot. He has to work on it a bit. But overall, he'll be fine."

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony agrees.

"I know what he can do," Anthony said. "Jules, he's high energy. He plays defense. I saw him in college. I saw him in high school. I know he can play."

The Nuggets must make a decision by the end of the month whether to exercise a contract option of $1.32 million on Hodge for the 2007-08 season. If the Nuggets decline, he will be a free agent next summer.

"In context of this year, it's not like we don't know who he is or isn't," Nuggets director of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said. "We got [his play in] Austin. We got four years at N.C. State. In context of this season, you have to figure it out."

In need of a shooting guard, the Nuggets selected the former North Carolina State star with the 20th overall choice in the 2005 draft. The Harlem native arrived in Denver with a swagger, a wide smile and a questionable jumper.

He failed to impress in preseason last year and was fourth of the four point guards on the roster. After making brief cameos in 11 Nuggets games through early February, Hodge got his wish to be sent to the NBADL with the Nuggets' affiliate, the Austin Toros. During two 11-game stints with the Toros, he averaged 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists. With the Nuggets, he averaged 0.9 points over 33 minutes in 14 games.

"He hadn't been in game situations at all," Johnson said. "He wanted to do it all, which was real good. For the most part he did it all when he played.

"He'd have 28, 29 points, nine assists. He did extremely well. Will it translate at point in the NBA? I think it will. Julius has to realize the amount of time you get, you play hard and make it happen. He's an anxious kid who wants to play."

Hodge's hopes of finishing his rookie season ended on the night of April 8. Had the shooting incident never occurred, he would have been the Nuggets' No. 2 point guard late last season because Earl Boykins was out with an injury and Earl Watson was traded.

In his long NBA coaching career, the Nuggets' George Karl said the only other rookie he coached with a comparably disastrous first season was Chris Washburn at Golden State. Hodge can only hope his career doesn't crash and burn like Washburn's did. The No. 3 overall choice in the 1986 draft was kicked out of the league for violations of the league's drug policy.

"He's humbled," Karl said of Hodge. "All young athletes and successful people have this Superman ego, Superman armor. When you go through that, you realize that it can be taken from you at any moment."

"I never look back on [the shooting] as a horrible thing," Hodge said. "It could have been much worse. I could have been easily, I guess, getting a bullet fragment out of my skull. I'm definitely blessed to be here."

Despite how bad things were off the court last season — including a sexual-assault allegation in which he was never charged — Hodge professes he is not a bad guy.

"All you can do is show people who you are when you interact with them," Hodge said. "My friends know I'm a great person."

He has spent countless hours rehabilitating in the gym and weight room. Part of his rehabilitation has included 17 nearly three-hour visits to a hyperbaric chamber to aid his recovery.

Hodge was ecstatic to learn last week that his fiancée and college sweetheart, whom he declined to name, is due to give birth to a girl in January. The couple is scheduled to marry in the offseason.

By then he hopes to have proven he belongs in the NBA.

"I know I'm still here for a reason," he said. "I love to play basketball. I know eventually I'm going to get my opportunity. Once I get my opportunity, I'm going to show the world."