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Nuggets’ Hamilton eager to change his image

Jordan Hamilton

** CORRECTS TO WEST, NOT SOUTHWEST REGIONAL ** Texas’ Jordan Hamilton talks to the media during a new conference for the third-round West Regional NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 19, 2011 in Tulsa, Okla. Texas plays Arizona on Sunday. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

AP

Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated has an article up on Nuggets rookie Jordan Hamilton, who is eager for the lockout to end so that he can begin rehabilitating his image, which may have caused him to drop out of the lottery and fall to the 26th spot in the draft:

For Jordan Hamilton, the former Texas swingman who slid to the 26th spot in the June draft after being projected as a lottery pick and landed in Denver after being traded by Dallas, the delay to his pro career is a nuisance for another reason: It’s putting his image makeover on hold.

According to the article, Hamilton is eager to meet head coach George Karl and GM Masai Ujiri that he’s extremely coachable and willing to work hard, and that the things he supposedly said about Texas coach Rick Barnes were taken out of context.

Hamilton is a great scorer who had lottery talent, but dropped to the late 20s because of some bad body language, some bad shot selection, and what may have been no more than a misunderstanding surrounding what Hamilton did or didn’t say about Rick Barnes. If Hamilton’s poor image really is nothing more than a media creation, the Nuggets may well have gotten one of the biggest steals of the draft -- but they won’t find out until the lockout ends and they actually get to meet him.