The Nuggets expressed shock that teammate Julius Hodge had been shot three times early Saturday morning and relief that the news wasn’t worse.
“We all were sad and hurting inside our hearts when we found out about what happened last night,” forward Ruben Patterson said Saturday morning, ahead of his team’s date with Golden State. “But we’ve just got to worry about tonight. But we know he’s OK and he’s going to be in our prayers.”
Forward Kenyon Martin added that the pain in his left knee did not weigh on him as much Saturday in light of Hodge’s scare.
“He’s a great kid,” the forward said. “Quiet, liked to have fun. Don’t bother nobody. He’s not a jerk to people. … I’ve just got tendinitis. There’s something else going on. That man got shot. It is what it is. You’ve just got to count your blessings and try to move on from this. This is a tough thing to deal with right now.”
Those two and other Nugget players planned on visiting Hodge after their morning shootaround. Coach George Karl said he planned to at least call his rookie guard.
Karl sounded a parental note when asked about his reaction.
“Two things – worried, and then you just want to punch him,” he said. “You worry about him and then of course you wonder where the hell were you? What’s going on here? But I think most of the stuff coming out now is he got caught in a bad situation, bad circumstances.”
The coach also praised Hodge’s eagerness to accept a move to Denver’s NBA Development League affiliate, the Austin Toros.
“He’s a good guy, good kid,” Karl said. “I think he’s taken his rookie year, basically being at the bottom of the totem pole, real well. He wanted to go down to Austin. A lot of rookies don’t want to be demoted. He wanted to go play, which I really respected. In general, he’s gotten better. His NBA season is probably going to be the summer league. I think he’s ready for that. He’s ambitious to try to see if he can play next year.”
General manager Kiki Vandeweghe received an early-morning phone call alerting him to the situation. Through the press he thanked the stranger who stopped on Interstate-76 to drive Hodge to the hospital.
Asked about the Nuggets’ ability to focus on basketball, Vandeweghe replied, “It was a surprise, and obviously your first thought was Julius and making sure he’s OK. Once we found that out, then the rest we could deal with.”
Martin also expressed surprise that such a violent act would take place in a city with a relatively peaceful reputation.
“People are stupid, man. People are idiots,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, man, that something like that would happen to one of your teammates in a city like Denver. If it can happen here, it can happen everywhere.”
Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or at athompson@denverpost.com.
