The Detroit Pistons still haven’t officially waived shooting guard Richard “Rip” Hamilton. Waivers take 48 hours to clear. Barring any unforeseen issues, Rip should be at Chicago Bulls trainingcamp by the middle of the week.
Today was Bulls media day, and of course free agency, trades, acquisitions were all hot topics. As you might expect no one said anything publicly to reveal the next transaction (Rip Hamilton to the Bulls). But if you read in between the lines, there’s was enough said to verify that this will soon be a done deal.
“Rip? Did we get him yet? Or..I don’t even know. If we were to get him I think he’ll be great, he’s always in perfect shape, running around especially for his age,” said the reigning MVP Derrick Rose at today’s presser. He sounded a bit confused at first, like perhaps he revealed too much.
“He has the experience as a winner…if anything I know he’d help us if we get him,” Rose added.
So the players are already repeating the party line in terms of what Hamilton brings to the table.
Luol Deng talked about how Hamilton played college basketball with Deng’s brother. He called him a good teammate, who’s good in the locker room.
Hamilton, the 7th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, averaged 14.1 ppg this past season, the lowest since 9.1 (the only season not in double digits) his rookie year. He’s 17.7 for his career.
GM Gar Forman, the man who will be in charge of bringing Hamilton to Chicago said only this about acquiring new players in the next couple days.
“You can see still exploring ways to improve…I don’t want to talk about specific players.”
By the way this deal once again proves correct Jerry Seinfeld’s sports fans are just “rooting for clothes” bit. You know all about the Bulls-Pistons rivalry; look how your opinion changes of Hamilton when he changes clothes.
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