I’m a former teammate of Michael Jordan’s – I used to give him fashion advice when he modeled his sneakers

RIP Hamilton got valuable advice from Michael Jordan on how to succeed in the NBA during their only season together.

In return, the Washington Wizards youngster provided fashion tips to the basketball legend with his line of Air Jordan sneakers.

The shooting guard was Jordan’s teammate with the Washington Wizards during the 2001-02 season, when he first joined the NBA and the Hall of Famer returned from retirement..

That season, Jordan would show up to the locker room wearing Air Jordan samples to see how his young teammates would react.

Hamilton said player response had a meaningful impact on the product’s design.

“That’s one of the luxuries of playing with him,” Hamilton told Complex.

“He would come into the locker room every day with a different sample shoe, sample shirt or whatever.

“He would get a response from all the little kids.

“Because you have to remember, Michael Jordan was a little older at the time. We were 20, 21.

“So he was able to get real opinions from 20-, 21-year-old kids that had a huge impact on sneaker culture.”

Jordan, on the other hand, once told Hamilton that he wasn’t good enough to wear his Air Jordan sneakers during their time together with the Wizards.

“Me and a couple of the younger guys would go up to him and say, ‘Hey, Mike, what do you think about putting us in the (Jordan Brand) line?'” Hamilton recalled on ESPN’s The Jump.

“He would look at me and say, ‘Hey, Rip — my sneakers are for All-Stars.'”

Hamilton didn’t let Jordan’s vitriol get him down.

After moving to the Detroit Pistons in 2002, Hamilton won the NBA championship in 2004 and was selected to the All-Star team three times.

He added: “After I made the All-Star team, I said, ‘Hey, M, now I’m an All-Star, now you gotta put me in those sneakers, now you gotta pay me big money.'”

Hamilton eventually became an Air Jordan athlete and received his own signature shoe in 2019, the Jordan 14 Rip Hamilton PE.

Hamilton had a 14-year career in the NBA and retired with the Bulls in 2013.

He is currently a basketball analyst for CBS Sports.