Grant Hill

Imagine a son of a football player becoming a NBA basketball champion. This was the story of Grant Hill, son of Calvin and Janet Hill, born in Texas, in October 1972, who gave 19 amazing seasons to the National Basketball Association. Though born in Texas, Hill’s family relocated from Texas to Washington after Hill’s father, Calvin Hill, was traded to the Redskins. Grant Hill had a very wealthy childhood, surrounded by celebrities and superstars. Being surrounded by all the wealth, Hill often felt uncomfortable in his environment as it made him seem as better than the people around him. This was one of the reasons why Hill chose to make a name for himself, going in a completely different route and creating a legacy of his own.

Throughout Hill’s life, he had several conflicts with his parents as his parents wanted him to choose a certain route while he wanted something else. This was especially an issue when it came time for Hill to pick his university. Hill’s mother wanted him to go to Georgetown University and Hill’s father wanted him to go to University of North Carolina, but he decided to go to none and went to Duke University. This is when he starts playing basketball professionally for the first time.  He played for Blue Devils for 4 years and won national titles for 2 consecutive years in 1991 and 1992. 

After this point his career took off and he started winning awards after awards. He won the Corinthian Award for the nation’s top defensive player in 1993 and the ACC’s player of the year in 1994. His stats were so well known that just in his first year of university he was able to play for the U.S’s basketball team Pan American Games, with the team winning a bronze medal. 

After his amazing college career he joined the Detroit Piston, but kept on swapping teams throughout his career. He won the Rookie of The Year Award in 1995, sharing it with Jason Kidd. In his rookie year he played for the All Star team making him the first person to be in the All Star team through ballot in their rookie year, beating Shaq to it. In fact not only did he get in the team, but he was actually leading the fan voting.

In 1996 he played for the U.S’s Basketball team in the Summer Olympics and the team won the gold medal. By this time he was still with the Detroit Piston, but even with his amazing performance, he realized that the team wasn’t going anywhere and that if he wanted to create a legacy he would need to change his team, which he did in 2000. After this swap, however, Hill had to go through a surgery which took him years to recover from. He played Basketball again in 2004 for Orlando Magic. Though his performance was good, it wasn’t like before. It didn’t change the fact that he was the fans favorite and got voted in the All Stars team either way. In 2005, however, he had to leave the game again as he realized that his injury wasn’t still fully healed and came back in 2006. 

In the 2007-8 season he switched teams and played for Phoenix Suns. Though his career might seem fluctuating a lot at this point, he was still being traded for millions of dollars. After the 2011-12 season, Hill decided to swap teams again and as expected, many big teams wanted him to play for them. Hill, however, chose Los Angeles Clippers even though it was one of the smallest teams out of his offers. After making this final swap in 2012, he played one season with the team and then retired in 2013, giving the NBA 19 seasons of games.

Some say he could have been the Michael Jordan, but due to his injuries he couldn’t. Many compare his style with Lebron, with his game style being similar to Lebron himself. With all his health issues, Grant Hill never gave up on Basketball. He knew from the start, he wanted to make a legacy for himself which he did. He fought through the struggles and pain like how he wanted to as a child, not privileged but a normal human being.

Source:

https://playersbio.com/grant-hill/