Grant Hill Is Getting Inducted Into The Hall Of Fame So Let's Discuss What Could Have Been With His Career
This is something I want to do over the next couple days as the Basketball Hall of Fame will induct the class of 2018 on the 7th. The class includes the likes of Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Ray Allen among others. So with that in mind I want to go back and talk about the careers of those guys, four guys that we all grew up with and remember playing.
Today we’re going to talk about Grant Hill, who had one of the most what-if great careers I can remember. Now what do I mean by what-if? Well, mostly the fact that Hill was a superstar and looked like he was about to be the best player in the league before he suffered some injuries that derailed that yet still had a long career and obviously successful one.
Hill’s career started as a highly-rated recruit that chose Duke over both of his parents wishes. They wanted him to play elsewhere, but Hill decided to join K, Hurley and Laettner at Duke, where he was instantly a key part to the team, starting 31 games as a freshman. While Laettner is often thought of in terms of having the better collegiate career, there was no doubt Hill was the most talented basketball player on that roster. He graduated Duke averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and just about 2 steals per game. He also won two titles and was a two time All-American.
Similar to his time at Duke, Hill immediately became a known name in the NBA. He was drafted third to the Pistons where he was playing as a point forward and really was one of the best two-way point forwards we saw. Hill was able to defend multiple positions while being one of the top scorers in the league, which helped him lead fan voting for the All-Star Game and became the first rookie to do so. He followed that up by beating Michael Jordan for the most votes in the 1996 All Star Game.
That’s how good Hill was and you could see the trajectory of his career. He was the one that was going to takeover the league whenever Jordan decided to hang it up if not before then. Ultimately an injury during the 1999-2000 season cost Hill that chance. While he was averaging over 25/6/5 that year, he suffered an ankle injury just before the start of the playoffs. It seemed like it was just a sprain, so he played through it until he was forced to leave in the middle of game 2.
After that year he signed with the Orlando Magic to team up with Tracy McGrady and they hopefully were going to draw Tim Duncan as well. But, we all know that story with Doc Rivers not letting Duncan’s family on the team plane so that fell through. That said, McGrady and Hill in 2000 were supposed to be the next great duo, except Hill barely played.
That ankle injury continued to get worse as he played just 47 games through his first four years in Orlando, including missing an entire year in 2003-04. That was due to a major surgery where doctors had to re-fracture his ankle in order to realign it with his leg bone. After that happened, Hill was rushed to the hospital as he developed a MRSA infection.
Hill was still able to rebound a bit after that, playing 67 games the following year for Orlando and then playing at least 70 games for four seasons in Phoenix. However, it all goes back to the ankle. That cost us the career of a guy who could have potentially been a top-10 player of all time. That’s how good Hill was. He legit had it all, even though he wasn’t a great 3-point shooter, it wasn’t exactly needed at the time. He was an excellent passer. He was an excellent scorer. He was an excellent defender.
To me, Hill’s career is one of the bigger what-if ones out there. Yes, he’s a Hall of Famer, especially when you look at what he did at Duke to go with the first 7 years of his career. However, just think about what he could have been. Just think about how good he could have been with McGrady in Orlando if he was healthy. He was a bit ahead of his time with the point forward spot and how he played. So with that in mind, here’s his highlights, because it’s worth watching:
