In the next few weeks the confirmation process of Grant Hill, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, will be complete. When that happens, it will be one more Grant Hill accomplishment that surprises no one.
To say Grant Hill has come a long way is not speculative but fact. His career started off with an illustrious bang as he instantly devoured his competition; he had six spectacularly sensational years showcasing his plethora of gifts. And then he had an ankle injury in the spring of 2000. Everything changed about Grant Hill’s professional life then. Everything except Grant Hill himself.
In the old days, when Grant Hill was thought of as a best player of his generation type of talent, it was a very crowded and competitive group he was thrown into: Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter and Allen Iverson. But, his body failed him before his mind and his contemporaries effortlessly sailed to greater heights.
Because his athleticism was taken away from him, and because all of the surgeries left him with an unfamiliar body, and because he was no longer a Michael Jordan legacy threat, Hill worked hard to rebuild from the ashes. As in most competitive battles he took on, Grant Hill won, perhaps not on the terms he had hoped for but on the terms he was now given.
Grant Hill is not unique. His basketball life was shrunken by fate; four cities, ten coaches, multiple operations, dreams deferred and dreams denied
The closest Hill came to an NBA Finals appearance was in 2010 when he lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Hill was 37 years old then. Now he is 42. His two year hiatus from basketball activities, philosophies, competition and NBA strategy is finally over.
Expected to be incredibly active in the Hawks front office culture, decision making and imprint, Hill’s qualifications as a former athlete who was anointed and then was thwarted, offers a unique perspective as he evaluates and improves upon the team he paid for.
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Because Hill only made it out of the first round of the playoffs one time, he knows the toughest bridge the Hawks have to cross is one that separates the very good from the great. When you win 60 games in the regular season and make an Eastern Conference Finals appearance you are very good. But getting swept in the conference finals means you have yet to embrace what it means to be great. That is the challenge Grant Hill carries as he tries to push the Hawks forward.
The experience of Grant Hill as a lottery pick, a great player, an All-Star, an injured star, influences the specifics. There are experiences in his NBA career that have enhanced his basketball education.
His Detroit Pistons team of 1995-96 was 27th in offensive rebounding. They were second in three point % at 40%. They had a short playoff run. The next year they didn’t improve rebounding while their offense improved and their playoff run came to another halt.
If that isn’t a cautionary tale to the current Hawks dilemma, then what is?
He left Detroit as a free agent and signed with Orlando, a seven year deal. Five of those years he was injured, either the entire year, or parts thereof. In two of those years Hill played 60+ games, a victorious accomplishment as he tried to fight for his career.
May 5, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Former NBA player Grant Hill watches the action between the Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Wizards during the second half in game two of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena. The Hawks defeated the Wizards 106-90. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
In 2004-05, he played with a young Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu and the Magic were in the top ten in rebounding and the bottom ten in scoring and defense. They didn’t make the playoffs that year. Two years later, his last in Orlando, the defensive numbers were on the rise but the offense was still slow and plodding and no playoffs again.
He was a free agent, he was 34 years old. It was 2007. Being healthy mattered but only if he could find the right formula to win.
Thirteen years earlier, when Grant Hill entered the league, he was instantly anointed partly because of his Duke heritage but mostly because he was that good. He could score off the dribble, catch and shoot, drive to the rim and finish, rebound, pass, defend shooting guards and small forwards. He could do it all.
In 1994, Michael Jordan was the baseball player. Kevin Garnett was a senior in high school. Kobe Bryant was a junior in high school. Tracy McGrady was a sophomore in high school. Magic Johnson had retired. So had Larry Bird. Grant Hill had the stage all to himself.
Grant Hill was co-Rookie of the Year (sharing honors with Jason Kidd), averaging 20 points a game. He was the first rookie in any sport to lead the All-Star balloting. The following year he averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds. Once the season was over he won an Olympic gold medal in Atlanta.
His third NBA year, Grant Hill averaged 21 points and 9 rebounds and 7 assists. No one has yet to match those numbers in one season. He led the NBA in triple doubles. He finished third in MVP voting behind Michael Jordan and Karl Malone.
His last year in Detroit, he averaged 26 points a game. In the playoffs he suffered an ankle injury but played through it. The injury would linger and keep him out of the Olympics that year. Worse, it would haunt him for years to come.
NBA careers revolve around luck and Grant Hill could not sustain health. By the time he recovered, his athletic days were long gone.
His Phoenix Suns tenure was with a team similar to the Hawks: high assists, below average rebounding, good three point shooters. But like the Hawks, the Suns lost in the Western Conference Finals because the Lakers had a player that could not be guarded and in a way it was full circle for Grant Hill.
He was supposed to be the Michael Jordan replacement in the Michael Jordan vacuum. He was supposed to have NBA Finals appearances and championship victory parades. He was supposed to have the Kobe Bryant career.
And so it was a moment of karma, in Game 6. Grant Hill was guarding Kobe Bryant in the last minute of regulation, guarding him in textbook fashion. All over him. Bryant came off a screen, Hill slid over, practically in his jersey. But Bryant made one of his miraculous shots over Hill to seal the game and get the Lakers to the NBA Finals.
It was a moment of Grant Hill’s past meeting Grant Hill’s fate
Hill was 37 years old then. His career had never been more beautiful and more frustrating, filled with what-if’s. What if I never got hurt? What if I didn’t play through it? What if my ankle never was infected? What if I didn’t have multiple surgeries? What if time had not passed me by? What if I could do it all over again?
He begins his Atlanta Hawks tenure in the front office with all of the heartache and wisdom and experience and intellect mined from two decades in the NBA. He never played with a great center in their prime but he played with Steve Nash. He saw up close the necessary intersection between scoring and rebounding. Offense has to be crisp but rebounding has to be a point of emphasis. One cannot subsist without the other.
He has played for every type of coach: the screamer, the patient one, the teacher, the friend, the encourager, the priest, the relentless worker. He played for two coaches twice: Alvin Gentry and Doc Rivers.
The Atlanta Hawks are not the Detroit Pistons of 1994. They are not a lottery team barren of talent so Grant Hill has to be the savior. It is quite the opposite. Grant Hill walks into a front office with two free agents but pieces still intact. The cupboard is far from being bare, the Hawks future is a bright light.
Perhaps this is how it was all supposed to be after all. The coming seasons providing Grant Hill, the owner, with the very thing that Grant Hill, the player, had always been denied: a NBA title.