Before NBA enforcer Rick Mahorn was associated with the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s, his basketball journey started at Hampton.
On Monday, Mahorn appeared at the Virginia HBCU for his jersey retirement ceremony during halftime of the Pirates game against North Carolina A&T.
“I never could have imagined my jersey being retired before I left,” Mahorn told WTKR. “I just accomplished things that God blessed me to do. This is where the guy that was with ‘Beef Brothers’, ‘Bad Boys’, ‘Bump and Thump’, it came from here at Hampton.”
Mahorn scored 2,418 points and earned three NAIA All-American honors at Hampton from 1976-1980. After being taken in the second round of the 1980 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, Mahorn played 18 seasons, winning a championship with Detroit in 1989.
1980 NBA Draft #tbt pic.twitter.com/ARdwBA2grb
— Rick Mahorn (@badboyhorn44) July 29, 2021
Mahorn said having his No. 44 hanging in the rafters is the No. 1 accomplishment of his basketball career.
“It shows that I did something here,” Mahorn said. “The best thing about it, it only enriches other guys that you can recruit and say, ‘Hey, Rick Mahorn could do it, you could do it.'”
