Sharpshooting Detroit Pistons star Richard Hamilton, aka ‘Rip’ recently discovered he isn’t the only one who deserves ‘Rip’ as a nickname. His former friend and longtime business manager Josh Nochimson stands accused of ripping off as much as $500,000 from the NBA player.
Nochimson allegedly stole the money by using credits cards without Hamilton’s knowledge. The two met when Hamilton was an NCAA star at the University of Connecticut, and Nochimson was a student manager with the team. Hamilton brought Nochimson into the NBA when he went pro. Hamilton now claims Nochimson defrauded him over a period of years. Said Hamilton, “It’s just something that you never think, in a million years, can happen to you.”
Nochimson has had no comment thus far on the accusations, but he did voluntarily have himself decertified as an agent, and one can assume he’s in the process of retaining a good lawyer. As for Hamilton, the episode was a bitter lesson. “We don’t like to look over stuff,” he said, “but you can’t trust anybody. I don’t give a damn who it is, you can’t trust nobody. When you think you can trust somebody, and you don’t start looking over your stuff, it’s nobody’s fault but your own.”