Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
Richard Clay "Rip" Hamilton (born February 14, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player and current basketball analyst for CBS Sports HQ. Hamilton played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is best known for his nine-year stint with the Detroit Pistons, where he was a three-time All-Star. He helped lead the Pistons to six straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances, back to back NBA Finals appearances, their best record in franchise history (64–18 in 2005–06) and the 2004 NBA championship.
Born and raised in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, a suburb 40 miles (64 km) west of Philadelphia, Hamilton played three years for the University of Connecticut. In his third and final year, Hamilton was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player en route to an upset NCAA Championship win over the favored Duke Blue Devils. He is the second-leading scorer in Connecticut Huskies history.
Named a consensus first-team All-American, Hamilton decided to forgo his senior year and enter the NBA draft. Drafted seventh overall by the Washington Wizards where he would spend the next three seasons, Hamilton notably averaged 20 points per game starting next to Michael Jordan. Traded to Detroit for Jerry Stackhouse in 2002, Hamilton played with the Pistons for nine seasons before ending his career with two final seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The Pistons retired his No. 32 jersey on February 26, 2017.
1978Feb, 14
Richard Hamilton (basketball)
Choose Another Date
Events on 1978
- 11Feb
Aristotle
Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. - 27Apr
Watergate scandal
Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes. - 25Jul
In vitro fertilisation
Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF. - 22Oct
Pope John Paul II
Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II. - 18Nov
Jim Jones
In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.