Three-time All-Star and 14-year NBA veteran Richard Hamilton announced his retirement today on ESPN2’s “His & Hers with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill” show, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles notes (Twitter link). The 37-year-old last played in the NBA during the 2012/13 season. He’d said this past July that he’d heard from NBA teams a couple of times and was hoping to return to the league to play for a contender, but no deal ever materialized. Hamilton added that the Wolves had shown interest early in 2013/14, and they appeared to be one of several teams interested at that point, but it appears his final NBA appearance will go down as a 35-minute, 15-point performance for the Bulls in a playoff loss to the Heat in 2013.
The seventh overall pick in the 1999 draft out of Connecticut, Hamilton averaged single digits in points as a rookie and in his final season, but he never otherwise did so as an NBA player, peaking with 20.1 points per game with the Pistons in 2005/06, his first All-Star season. The 6’6″ swingman also averaged 20 PPG in the last of his three seasons with the Wizards, his original NBA team. His arrival in Detroit in a trade that sent Jerry Stackhouse to Washington helped turn the Pistons into perennial contenders, and Detroit won the NBA title in Hamilton’s second year with the club.
His tenure with the Pistons ended acrimoniously as he clashed with then-coach John Kuester, and the team let him go shortly following the 2011 lockout. He signed a three-year, $15MM contract with the Bulls soon thereafter, but the Bulls waived him in July of 2013 rather than pay him more than his $1MM partial guarantee, effectively bringing an end to his playing days.
The Leon Rose client walks away with more than $109MM in earnings over the course of his time in the NBA, according to Basketball-Reference. He averaged 17.1 PPG and 3.4 assists per game with 34.6% three-point shooting and a 16.5 PER for his career.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I smell a 1-day contract with the Pistons, so they can retire his number along with everyone else who has ever started a game in Detroit…
The Tigers, meanwhile, don’t retire anyone’s number. Isn’t there a middle ground somewhere?
Great player. Originally made it cool to wear a face mask while playing basketball. Great Pistons squad during their championship season.
I think he and Chauncey Billups will likely be the only ones to have their numbers retired by Detroit. Rasheed Wallace probably had just as good as an overall career, but he came to them late and only helped to push them over the top. Ben Wallace was also good but in the scope retiring players, does he really deserve that kind of prestige?
Only Billups should get his number retired and that is a little iffy. rip was solid but not number retried good but maybe the 5 of them can get a banner (besides their championships) with their name and numbers together on one without retirering any of theirs.