Until he became truly desperate, Tom Thibodeau had glued Richard Hamilton to the bench throughout these Playoffs (the veteran had seen a grand total of 10 minutes this entire postseason.) Improbably, Rip played and finished with 11 points in nearly 22 minutes last night, as the Miami Heat blew out the Chicago Bulls 88-65 in Game 4. Hamilton clearly wasn’t expecting to see any action, and took an eternity to get all of his accessories in order (even fouling LeBron James just to halt play.) Per the Chicago Sun-Times: “Asked why coach Tom Thibodeau had been ignoring him throughout, Hamilton was walking that fine line between biting his tongue and spouting off. ‘We definitely talked,’ Hamilton said of Thibodeau. ‘It’s hard to understand. One of the biggest things for me was [the playoffs] was the purpose I was brought here. When you don’t play it makes it hard, especially because I love these situations.’ Asked if the explanation given by Thibodeau was sufficient for him, Hamilton responded, ‘I’ll let you figure it out … Not be able to help my teammates has been rough, but I try to stay positive,’ Hamilton said. ‘Try not to rock the boat.'”
(H/T: The Basketball Jones)
