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NBA: 50 greatest players who aren’t in the Basketball Hall of Fame

By Maxwell Ogden

AUBURN HILLS, UNITED STATES: Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Piston celebrates with the fans after the Pistons defeated the Lakers 100-87 to win the 2004 NBA championship final, in Auburn Hills, MI, 15 June 2004. The Pistons won the best-of-seven NBA championship series 5-1 and Billups was the series MVP. AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
AUBURN HILLS, UNITED STATES: Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Piston celebrates with the fans after the Pistons defeated the Lakers 100-87 to win the 2004 NBA championship final, in Auburn Hills, MI, 15 June 2004. The Pistons won the best-of-seven NBA championship series 5-1 and Billups was the series MVP. AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images) /
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NBA star Richard Hamilton
CLEVELAND – FEBRUARY 22: Richard Hamilton #32 of the Detroit Pistons looks up during the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on February 22, 2009 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavaliers won 99-78. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

50 greatest players who aren’t in the Basketball Hall of Fame: 36. Richard Hamilton

This slideshow will address an unfortunate truth: The Detroit Pistons teams of the 2000s are criminally under-appreciated. Detroit didn’t play the prettiest style, but it got the job done with intense defense, selfless ball movement, and unwavering poise in the most crucial of moments.

One of the players who embodied the mechanics that made Detroit such a well-oiled machine was midrange marksman and jump shooting metronome Richard Hamilton.

Hamilton led the Connecticut Huskies to the 1999 NCAA Championship, winning Most Outstanding Player honors during the Final Four. Five years later, Hamilton added an NBA Championship to his résumé as perhaps the most reliable offensive option on the Pistons.

Hamilton was Detroit’s leading scorer in every game of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals, and scored 31 points during a crucial Game 3 win during the 2004 NBA Finals.

Hamilton would finish his career with upwards of 15,000 career regular-season points and more than 2,500 points in the playoffs. He ranks top-40 all-time in postseason scoring and accumulated those statistics while helping Detroit dominate the Eastern Conference.

That dominance played out in the form of six consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances.

At 17.1 points per game over 14 seasons, Hamilton was one of the better and more productive scorers of his time. He boosted that figure to upwards of 20 points per game during five of the Pistons’ six trips to the NBA Semifinals, as well as both journeys to the NBA Finals.

With championships at the professional and collegiate levels, and impressive scoring numbers all around, Hamilton easily makes the cut for these rankings.