Richard ‘Rip’ Hamilton was teammates with Michael Jordan on the 2001-02 Wizards.
The then 23-year-old was a full 15 years younger than Jordan and had come up watching His Airness on the Chicago Bulls.
Recalling his time as Jordan’s teammate on during an appearance on Showtime’s All The Smoke, Hamilton spoke on an incident where Michael Jordan made sure Laron Profit got traded away from the team after talking trash to him.
The story explained, via Bro Bible:
“According to Hamilton, he and teammate Laron Profit would engage Jordan in trash talk when they played each other during informal pickup games. During one of those games, Profit scored on Jordan and blurted out “You can’t guard me with them old-ass knees.” Hamilton said he knew that Jordan was “heated” after Profit’s comment and he goes on to explain why he believes it influenced MJ’s decision to trade Laron away to Orlando later that year.”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
“He was heated to the point that when I went to my exit meeting—because he was the president at the time—I went into my exit meeting and he was like, ‘OK, Rip, you know, your man, your buddy … he’s outta here,’” “He said, ‘But you’re gonna be there by yourself, and you ain’t gonna have your buddy to co-sign. You’re gonna be on an island by yourself.’”
Jordan wanted him gone so bad that they traded him and a 1st round draft pick to the Orlando Magic for North Carolina center Brendan Haywood.
Profit never played a game for the Magic after they waived him. He would go on to spend the next 3 years out of the league and playing internationally. He would return to the NBA during the 2004-2005 season to play for the Wizards and then the Lakers the next season.
His career was over after that.
