This little blurb appeared in today’s basketball notes for the Boston Globe.

Ripped off?: Two NBA sources said former UConn team manager Josh Nochimson has been decertified as an agent by the players’ union in large part because he has been accused of stealing about $500,000 from Pistons guard Richard Hamilton, a former UConn star. Nochimson also is no longer the agent for Bulls forward Luol Deng, who last week signed a six-year, $71 million contract extension.

Source: Boston Globe

So it turns out that Deng didn’t just dump his agent to get a new agent that could get him a lucrative contract. Ben Gordon also changed his agent to Raymond Brothers before he became eligible for an extension. I suspect that Gordon fired his agent for hooking him up with Larry Harmon & Associates, a financial adviser, who stole $1 million from Gordon for their own real estate ventures.

Deng’s former agent, Josh Nochimson, is now decertified, so Deng would have had to get a new agent anyhow, even if he wanted to keep Nochimson. The reasons for Deng’s firing of his agent have been known in NBA circles for awhile, but out of common courtesy, they were to keep it a secret until the story broke in the press.