Rip Hamilton: Trade-Nixing A-Hole

As stunned coaches and teammates watched, Hamilton bellowed at Kuester that he had been a failure in his two seasons in Detroit, blown the opportunity the franchise afforded him and was nothing more than a career assistant coach, sources said. Despite Hamilton yelling within inches of him, Kuester didn’t respond.

Younger players were “mortified.” Hamilton has the ears of “a powerful lobby of veterans” like Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince. Because of his huge contract, the Pistons had trouble moving Hamilton before the trade deadline. Surprisingly, there was a chance to get rid of him.

Pistons general manager Joe Dumars and Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant had an agreement to send Hamilton and a lottery-protected 2012 first-round draft pick for a $12.6 million trade exception and a second-round draft pick on Thursday, sources said. Cleveland was mostly interested in the draft pick, but was willing to let Hamilton join the team for the remainder of his contract. Once Hamilton made clear he didn’t want to play for a last-place team, his representatives discussed a contract buyout that would’ve allowed him to likely join the Chicago Bulls, sources said.

He has obviously lost his mind. They got him out of Detroit. They were guarunteeing him money. He was going to end up on one of the top 3 seeds in a wide-open Eastern Conference. Instead, he decided to stay and make life Hell for Kuester and the franchise that got him a championship ring.

[Yahoo!, Image via Getty]