rip hamilton

Keith Langlois

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Pistons.com continues its periodic look at some of the most significant personnel moves – trades, free-agent signings, draft picks – in Pistons history. Next up: The September 2002 trade, on the eve of training camp, that sent leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse to Washington for Rip Hamilton.)

No matter when news had come that the Pistons traded their leading scorer, it would have been a “whoa” moment.

But the timing of the Jerry Stackhouse-for-Rip Hamilton trade – a few weeks before the start of training camp, Sept. 11, 2002 – made it especially stunning across the NBA.

September, after all, is typically the slowest month on the NBA calendar. If there’s anything done, it’s adding a veteran free agent to a minimum deal or inviting the last few NBA hopeful to training camp on non-guaranteed contracts. Trading an All-Star, as Stackhouse was in 2000 and ’01, in the prime of his career from a 50-win team and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, as the Pistons were in 2001-02 – and for a player at the same position, no less?

“When you have the opportunity to add an All-Star player of Jerry’s caliber, you can’t hesitate on the chance to strengthen the team,” said then-Wizards general manager Wes Unseld, who died last month. “We had to part with several players we were very high on, but we feel we have improved.”

The deal involved six players, three a side, though Stackhouse – a year removed from averaging 29.8 points, a single-season Pistons record that still stands – and Hamilton were the only players of consequence. To be sure, it was easier to see the trade from Washington’s perspective. The Wizards – trying to do whatever they could to win with a certain 39-year-old named Michael Jordan on their roster – were getting the more proven player.

“We think Rip Hamilton is one of the best young two guards in the NBA and we expect him to be here for a long time,” Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said. “I see us having tremendous depth on our team. You can stand pat and say, well, we had success last year and it’ll automatically carry over into next year. That’s just not the case.”

Hamilton, more than three years younger than Stackhouse, averaged 20.0 points as a 23-year-old for the Wizards, playing most of his minutes at small forward to accommodate Jordan, who averaged a team-high 22.9 in 2001-02.

Both teams were motivated, in part, by coming contract negotiations. Stackhouse was expected to opt out of the final two years of his contract after the 2002-03 season and made rumblings of wanting a maximum contract, which would have paid him as much as $103 million over seven years.

Dumars, whose playing career had overlapped Stackhouse’s early days with the Pistons, liked Stackhouse – they were actually neighbors, as well – but balked at committing more than $13 million in first-year salary at a time the salary cap was about $42 million per team. Dumars had just seen the Pistons ousted in the second round of the 2002 playoffs by Boston, losing four straight after winning the opener at home and struggling mightily to score. With Stackhouse at the core of the offense, the Pistons averaged 75 points over the last four games.

Hamilton, meanwhile, had turned down a contract extension from the Wizards that same summer, though not for nearly as much money. There was also speculation that Jordan, who held sway in Washington’s front office after taking over as head of basketball operations in January 2000 before deciding to return as a player for the 2001-02 season, merely wanted Hamilton gone and preferred Stackhouse given their shared North Carolina pedigree.

Years later, in a 2020 interview, Hamilton talked about approaching Jordan regarding a sneaker endorsement deal with the exclusive Jordan Brand of Nike.

“ ‘Hey, Rip, my sneakers (are) for All-Stars,’ ” Hamilton remembered Jordan telling him. “You just had to have thick skin with him.”

In any case, Hamilton seemed genuinely thrilled to be traded to the Pistons, where he joined a younger team that had just drafted a slender small forward, Tayshaun Prince, and added a young point guard in free agency, Chauncey Billups, to slot into a lineup anchored by center and defensive stalwart Ben Wallace.

“I love the pressure,” he said at his introductory press conference the day after the trade. “I love playing basketball. For me, this is the opportunity of a lifetime, coming to Detroit. They have young guys who like to get up and down the floor. They have veterans who know how to play the game. They have big guys who can finish like Ben Wallace and they have another Connecticut guy in Cliff Robinson.”

He seized that opportunity of a lifetime with both hands, too, going on to lead the Pistons in scoring for the next eight seasons and playing on teams that went to five straight Eastern Conference finals, winning the 2004 NBA title and coming within a Game 7 loss of a ’05 repeat. Hamilton was a three-time All-Star and currently ranks No. 6 in franchise history for points scored (11,582) and No. 10 in games played (631).

And in February 2017, with the Pistons playing their final games at The Palace of Auburn Hills where Hamilton plied his trade, his No. 32 was retired by the Pistons. That night, Hamilton told the story of writing his goals as a kid on a piece of cardboard he kept above his bedroom door. Every time he accomplished one goal, he would cross it off his list.

“I said I wanted to be an NBA player,” he told The Palace crowd during the halftime ceremony. “I wanted to be an NCAA champion. I wanted to be an NBA champion. But not once did I write on that board that one day that jersey would be going up in the rafters.”

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A Big Deal: A late-summer stunner swapped out Stackhouse for Hamilton

(EDITOR'S NOTE: While the NBA season is in limbo amid the coronavirus pandemic, Pistons.com will periodically look back at some of the greatest and most significant games in franchise history. First up: Game 6 of the 2004 second round against the New Jersey Nets.)

It was the most celebrated play in the 29-year history of The Palace of Auburn Hills: a 3-pointer from just inside the half-court line to force overtime in a high-stakes playoff game.

But the banked triple that made certain Chauncey Billups would always be known as Mr. Big Shot didn’t wind up leading to a Pistons win. And for about 48 agonizing hours, it threatened to become nothing more than a footnote to a painful loss that pushed the Pistons to the brink of playoff elimination.

After enduring that exhausting triple-overtime loss on May 14 in Game 5 of a second-round series, the Pistons had to travel the next day, a Saturday, back to New Jersey. The Nets – reigning Eastern Conference champions – had already spanked the Pistons there twice in a series where home court appeared to mean everything. Before that epic triple-overtime thriller, the Nets had won by 18 and 15 at the Meadowlands and the Pistons by the same margins, 18 and 15, at The Palace.

(And those margins were especially lopsided considering the defensive nature of the games and of the era. Consider: Other than the triple-overtime game, neither team hit triple digits in any game of that series. In the six other games, the winning team scored 78, 95, 82, 94, 81 and 90 points – and the losing team scored in the 50s once, the 60s twice and the 70s twice.)

So everything screamed a New Jersey win on that Sunday evening in mid-May. Home court, momentum, the history of the series, the emotional toll of that crushing Game 6 loss at home on the heels of the euphoria that enveloped The Palace when Billups’ miracle shot forced overtime – everything pointed to a New Jersey romp and the Pistons season closing where it had ended 12 months earlier in the conference finals.

And the game’s opening segment only reinforced prevailing wisdom. The Nets jumped to a 13-4 lead after five minutes. The precision with which Larry Brown’s offense executed and relied upon was blunted by the familiarity the Nets had gained by playing the Pistons so often and by the physicality of the games. (In the 3OT game, all Pistons starters except Billups fouled out as the Nets shot 55 free throws, all of which made Brown livid.) The chances of a comeback seemed remote midway through the first quarter with a bloodthirsty crowd at full throat.

But the Pistons came back to cut the deficit to two after a quarter and dominated the second quarter, 27-11, to lead by 14 at halftime. The Nets dominated the third almost as thoroughly to pull within three headed to the fourth quarter and it was anybody’s game in the final minute.

That’s when the endless repetition and flawless execution Brown demanded paid off. On two half-court possessions with their season on the line, the Pistons produced the type of shot Brown’s offense was designed to get – the kind of shot eschewed by every team in today’s NBA where layups and 3-point shots are the holy grail and mid-range shots are to be avoided at all costs.

With the game tied in the final minute, the Pistons twice ran Hamilton around a series of screens – from Tayshaun Prince and Ben Wallace on the right side and Rasheed Wallace on the left, the pressure point where the play was designed to yield its opportunity.

On the first, the Pistons got a switch – Jason Kidd going off of Hamilton and on to Rasheed Wallace, who scored on a 12-foot turnaround over the Nets star guard. After Richard Jefferson tied the game again, the Nets the next time avoided the switch; Hamilton, given just enough breathing room as Kidd moved around Rasheed Wallace’s screen, drained a bloodless jumper with 15 seconds to play.

“I knew I could shoot over the top of him,” Hamilton said after the 81-75 win. “I just tried to get to a spot. I thought I got fouled on the play, too.”

Hamilton’s irrepressible scoring ability was the lifeblood of the Pistons offense during that playoff run. In a game where every half-court possession was a Greco-Roman wrestling match, Hamilton scored 24 of their 81 points in the win that set up the 2004 title run. Brown’s bench was also instrumental that night. Mehmet Okur played 21 minutes – three more than Prince – as the Pistons struggled to contain Jefferson, who led New Jersey with 23 points. And Lindsey Hunter scored eight points in just nine minutes, hitting 2 of 3 3-pointers on a night the Pistons made only five for the game.

There were rumblings that Kidd had injured his knee in that draining triple-OT Game 5, though he played 45 minutes in the Game 6 loss at less than his typical level of impact, finishing with 11 points and eight assists. With the series headed back to The Palace for Game 7 two nights later, all the things that made the Nets a prohibitive favorite for Game 6 – momentum, home court, psyche – now switched sides.

The Pistons didn’t squander their advantages, routing the Nets 90-69. Kidd, clearly under par, went scoreless in 42 minutes, shooting 0 of 8. Billups and Hamilton combined for 43 points. Nobody had to make any miracle threes or clutch jumpers this time.

And the Pistons were on to the conference finals – a series that would be even more physical and defense-dominant – against the Indiana Pacers.

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What a Game: After Mr. Big Shot’s miracle couldn’t prevent 3OT loss, Pistons had their backs to the wall

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Unforgettable Moments: Rip vs. Reggie

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Rip Hamilton Jersey Retirement - February 26, 2017

AUBURN HILLS – In the hours leading to his coronation as Pistons royalty, the tears fell as often for Rip Hamilton as his jump shot did all those seasons when The Palace throbbed with the pulse of an NBA championship contender.

“I already cried three times today,” he said an hour before the Pistons and Celtics game and the halftime ceremony where his No. 32 was run to the rafters to join Ben Wallace’s No. 3 and Chauncey Billups’ No. 1.

Make it four. He started tearing up as George Blaha rattled off his many accomplishments, then sobbing as Chauncey Billups – speaking for his teammates – wrapped up his tribute to Rip with this: “We came here the same year together, met as friends and now we’re brothers. I cherished every single moment we played together. I cherish every single thing about you and I love you, man. Congratulations.”

Chauncey and Ben, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince … that was just the tip of it. Lindsey Hunter, Mike James, Mo Evans, Mehmet Okur, Antonio McDyess, Michael Curry and Elden Campbell were also there. His college coach at UConn, Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, and his high school coach, as well. And, of course, Larry Brown.

It was very likely the last time the Goin’ to Work Brotherhood will be united at the building they electrified all those winter and spring nights for the better part of a decade.

Of the five starters inextricably linked for life, all but Prince began their NBA careers elsewhere. It made them that much more aware and appreciative of the special bond they formed here. Rip said he talks to other players who won championships and asks how often they connect with their teammates.

“Some haven’t talked in 10 or 15 years,” he said. “Man, we talk two or three times a week.”

On Saturday night, they did what they did hundreds of times over the years on the road – went out as a group to eat – and then they gathered in Rasheed Wallace’s hotel room.

“Until 4 o’clock in the morning,” Hamilton grinned. “Laughing, telling old stories. Our bond was special.”

Hamilton fully expects to be at ceremonies in the not-too-distant future to honor Rasheed Wallace and Prince, too. To a man, the idea that they wouldn’t all have equal recognition to reflect the secret sauce in their recipe for success is a little crazy.

“Our motto was ‘We’re the best five alive.’ Before every game, that was our chant in the middle of the huddle: ‘Best five alive.’ We all knew in order for us to be great at what we do, we need each other. We need our brothers.”

But those ceremonies, when they come, won’t be at The Palace. Hamilton repeatedly called the honor “surreal,” but the ride to the arena helped ground him, the same route he took all those years from his Bloomfield Hills home.

“Coming down Square Lake and seeing The Palace to the right, man,” he said. “This is special. I’m right back in it again. Felt like I’m going to a game. This is the Lakers all over again. That’s the feeling I have in my stomach. Can’t eat. Don’t want to talk to anybody.”

But when he got the chance, he composed himself – had a handkerchief in his hand, dabbing at his tears – and thanked everyone from his parents to his high school and college coaches to his wife and three children and, of course, his teammates.

He told the story of writing his goals as a kid on a piece of cardboard he kept above his bedroom door. Every time he accomplished a goal, it would get crossed off and on to the next.

“I said I wanted to be an NBA player. I wanted to be an NCAA champion. I wanted to be an NBA champion,” he said. “But not once did I write on that board that one day that jersey would be going up in the rafters.”

But that’s where No. 32 is, in the familiar company of No. 1 and No. 3. If that’s the last time they’re all at The Palace, they went out with a bang.

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Rip to the rafters: Pistons honor Hamilton by retiring No. 32

AUBURN HILLS – The Goin’ to Work Pistons were the most egalitarian NBA champion since the New York Knicks of Reed, Frazier, Monroe, Bradley and DeBusschere from two generations previous.

Rip Hamilton’s jersey gets run up to The Palace’s rafters at halftime when they host Boston on Sunday, but once Ben Wallace’s went up last season – followed the next month by Chauncey Billups’ – it seemed inevitable that they’d all be there someday, together, flying side by side like five laundered dress shirts from another work week drying on the line.

Hamilton becomes the third. In some ways, he was most taken for granted.

Billups was Mr. Big Shot, ran the offense, had the ball in his hands all the time, wore No. 1, was the unofficial team spokesman and had that incandescent smile.

Ben Wallace sported the billowing Afro and possessed a cult following, enormous biceps, outrageous rebounding numbers and all those Defensive Player of the Year trophies weighing down his mantle.

Tayshaun Prince was the quietest among them and the only one who didn’t get to the All-Star game when the other four went in 2006, but he also had the frozen-in-time blocked shot of Reggie Miller and a reputation – dating from his rookie season, when Rick Carlisle took him out of mothballs to be draped all over Tracy McGrady and turn a playoff series – as an elite perimeter defender for a team that hung its hat on D.

Rasheed Wallace was ever flamboyant and spectacularly gifted in so many areas, reluctant to let the spectrum of his abilities regularly breathe but held in reverence by NBA peers for the breadth of his game.

Rip was their metronome, giving them 18 to 20 points a night in an NBA era where points came grudgingly. Those six straight years the Goin’ to Work Pistons went to the Eastern Conference finals? Rip was their leading scorer in every season.

Even though it wasn’t all that long ago – but still, is it really 13 years since they won that title already? – it was a different NBA era. For 10 straight seasons, from his second year in Washington before Joe Dumars sent the much more acclaimed Jerry Stackhouse to the Wizards for the wiry, bouncy Hamilton, Rip averaged between 17.3 and 20.1 points.

Let’s view his scoring in the context of the era. When the Pistons beat Indiana in one of the most bitterly contested playoff series of that or any NBA era, the 2004 conference finals, they won the series despite averaging 75 points – 75! – a game.  Only three times in the series did either team top 80 points. The Pistons won games scoring 72 and 69 points.

Rip averaged 23.7 points in the series on 47 percent shooting. To put that in perspective, that’s like averaging 33 points for a team that scores at today’s average of 105.5 points a game.

“Man, he was a hard, hard guy to defend,” Stan Van Gundy said, recalling the 2005 conference finals when his Miami Heat lost in seven games to the Pistons. “He was in a different era. He was a great catch-and-shoot, mid-range guy.”

Hamilton scored 22 points, hitting 11 of 16 shots, in that 88-82 Game 7 win. How important was he? Larry Brown didn’t trust anyone else with a minute of his time. Rip played all 48. Not anybody else on either team.

“It was Rip we couldn’t get under control,” Van Gundy said. “We tried a little bit of everything. He was coming off of Ben, we would stunt up and almost go into a trap. He’s just getting the ball to Ben, Ben’s making the next pass, then you lay back more and he’s shooting a jumper. Then you come off Chauncey on the stunt, he’s making that pass, Chauncey’s shooting a three. We couldn’t get that under control at all. The guy was a great, great player.”

His passing skills were underrated, too. He had seven assists that night.

Another thing: Hamilton had a reputation as the defensive weak link of a team that yielded a miserly 84.3 points a game in their title-winning season. But Van Gundy doesn’t remember it that way.

“He became a really solid, committed defender.”

Evidence: In March 2008, the Pistons beat Cleveland and LeBron James 85-71 at The Palace. Usually, it was Prince on James. That night, Rip guarded him. LeBron came in having scored 20-plus points in 49 straight games. Rip held him to 13 and it wasn’t because LeBron decided to be a facilitator that night. He shot 4 of 17 and picked up four assists with five turnovers. Rip probably gave away 75 pounds.

There were times in their latter seasons together where it was Hamilton defending the opposition point guard and Billups, strong enough to match up with shooting guards, switching over to allow the lanky, 6-foot-7 Hamilton to harass the other team’s primary ballhandler.

If you had to pick one possession to boil down a great player’s career, for me the one you pick with Rip would come the night of May 16, 2004. It was Game 6 at New Jersey, the second round of the playoffs, the Nets up 3-2 and desperate to close it out at home in a series where the home teams had been dominant through four games. The Pistons were coming off a crushing triple-overtime loss two nights earlier.

They fell behind 13-4 to start the game in a series where a nine-point deficit felt like 29. With less than 40 seconds to play and the Pistons up two with the ball, they needed a basket. They worked the shot clock methodically and ran the bread-and-butter staple of their offense – running Hamilton around endless screens to free him for his signature mid-range jumper. (Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time they ran “2-Chest,” I’d have a retirement plan.)

With the shot clock about to expire, Rip got the ball on the left baseline, pump faked Jason Kidd off his feet and drained a cold-blooded 18-footer.

It was perhaps the biggest shot of their playoff run that spring, a run that culminated in the “five-game sweep” over a Lakers roster heavy with future Hall of Famers. The Pistons might not end up with anyone from that team in Springfield, which would merely underscore their unique composition.

When you’re built the way the Goin’ to Work Pistons were put together, all five have to fill their roles as snugly as five fingers fit into a glove. Rip filled his role – their metronome, the guy whose scoring was at the heart of their offense – as unerringly as anyone who’s ever pulled a Pistons jersey over his head. That’s why it goes to the rafters, where it finds fitting and familiar company.

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Ode to Rip, who filled his role as well as anyone to wear a Pistons jersey

AUBURN HILLS, Mich.– The Detroit Pistons announced today that the club will honor and retire the jersey for Richard Hamilton during the 2016-17 season.  Hamilton will be honored during a halftime ceremony on Sunday, February 26 at 6:00 p.m. when the Pistons host the Boston Celtics at The Palace. Tickets to the game can be purchased here.

 “Our franchise has a great legacy and it’s important to recognize the players who made our organization successful both on and off the court,” said Pistons owner Tom Gores.  “Rip’s numbers speak for themselves.  He was a top performer year in and year out, from the regular season through the playoffs and especially during the championship run of 2004.  He was relentless on the court and equally passionate about his teammates and the community.  We are excited to honor his success.”

 Hamilton spent nine seasons with Detroit (2002-2011) leading the Pistons in scoring during eight of those nine seasons. He is one of just six players in Pistons’ franchise history to reach the 11,000-point plateau and one of five players to score 50-plus points in a game (51 at New York, 12/27/06).   During his tenure the club made six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals (2003-2008), two trips to the NBA Finals (2004, 2005) and won the NBA Championship in 2004.  Hamilton was also named an NBA All-Star in three consecutive seasons from 2005-08. In 631 games as a Piston, the Coatesville, PA native averaged 18.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game and ranks sixth in points, free throws made and field goals made, seventh in assists, minutes and three-point field goals made and 10th in games played in franchise history.

 “Detroit is where I celebrated the greatest achievements in my pro basketball career and to be recognized by the organization in this way, I’m honored,” said Hamilton.  “I look forward to sharing this experience with all the fans who supported me throughout my years as a Piston and look forward to celebrating in The Palace one final time. Yessirr.”

 Hamilton was a stalwart in the postseason for Detroit, averaging 20.6 points per game, the fourth-highest playoff average in franchise history, 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.0 steals and 40.0 minutes in 120 playoff games with the Pistons.  His 2,467 total points, 120 games played, 904 field goals made, 2,051 field goals attempted and 593 free throws made are all Pistons’ franchise playoff records.  Overall, Hamilton appeared in 130 career playoff games with Detroit and Chicago, averaging 19.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 38.8 minutes.

 A 6’7, 190-pound guard, Hamilton was drafted No. 7 overall in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards and spent time with Washington, Detroit and Chicago during his 14-year career.  Of those 14 seasons, he averaged 15-plus points in 10 seasons, including two 20-plus point seasons (20.0, 2001-02; 20.1, 2005-06).  Overall, in 921 career NBA games, Hamilton averaged 17.1 points, 3.1 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 32.1 minutes per game.

 For in-depth analysis by website editor Keith Langlois and special inside-access videos, visit www.pistons.com, the official source for news and features on the Detroit Pistons.