Grant Hill

[NM Duke Fan]

This is worth a read!

"It's rare to find an NBA player who can reinvent himself midstream, who can go from superstar to role player during what are supposed to be the prime years. Even beyond that, Hill's story is amazing for both the timing of his comeback and the time he's invested to play at such a high level at his age."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...anthill-100428

[CoBlueDevil]

Nice article about Grant Hill on espn. He's 37 and still trucking, playing great ball. It's too bad he had all those injuries, but nothing to dwell on.

[Class of '94]

But it really wasn't mulitiple injuries that caused Grant to miss a lot of games. It was just one injury (his ankle) that was never fixed correctly that caused those subsequent operations. The ironic thing was that he went to the premiere specialist in orthapedics to fix his ankle mutiple times and it kept breaking; after several tries with this expert, he went Duke Hospital's own, Dr. Nunley, for treatment and the doctor was the one that finally got his anke right. It makes you wonder what might have happened if he went to Duke in the first place or simply "shut it down" for the playoffs to give his ankle a chance to heal.

Either way, Grant's still a great player, and IMO, Grant's the best player (from a talent and athleticsm perspective) to ever play for Duke. I went to school and graduated with Grant; and it was awesome watching him play. Many people remember his dunk in the Kansas game his freshman year; but he had a nasty dunk my sophmore year against Georgia Tech that, IMO, was better than the Kansas dunk. It was at Tech; Hurley threw a pass that was so high that the ball looked like it was going into the rafters and out of bounds; but Grant went up, grabbed the ball with one hand, and dunked it as he was falling backwards. Prior to that dunk, the crowd was loud and roudy; but when Grant made that dunk, the whole building went quiet for several minutes. It was an incredible play; and the best dunk I ever saw in college. I've been unsucessful in trying to find a video copy of that dunk. If anyone has a video link or copy of that dunk, let me know.

Another incredible play happened my senior year when we played Carolina. Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace were on the Carolina team as freshmen. It was a 3 on 1 play; and Grant was the lone defender against Stachhouse and 2 other players. Grant guessed right and was able to slap the ball away from Stackhouse; he took the ball up the court and passed the ball to Cherokee Parks for a slam dunk. Grant had us all screaming and yelling on that play.

At the time of his injury, Grant was the best perimeter player in the NBA...better than Kobe and Vince Carter. There are people who do not think Grant will be a Hall of Fame player now due to his injuries. I disagree. He had Hall of Fame talent before the injuries; and the fact that he fought through the injuries to come back to play at such a high level now should give HOF consideration. He might not get in on the first nomination; but he should eventually get in.

[gotoguy]

I too had the good fortune of seeing Grant's dunk at Tech, which without question was the best I've ever seen. And yes, the crowd was stunned into silence though it probably lasted only 15 or 20 seconds. Maybe it's on youtube somewhere...

[MChambers]

I too had the good fortune of seeing Grant's dunk at Tech, which without question was the best I've ever seen. And yes, the crowd was stunned into silence though it probably lasted only 15 or 20 seconds. Maybe it's on youtube somewhere...

Didn't Hurley miss the game at Tech? I thought it was Brian Davis who threw the pass. It was an amazing dunk, either way.

[VaDukie]

Someone please find or upload that dunk. I'm dying with anticipation.

[Dev11]

Someone please find or upload that dunk. I'm dying with anticipation.

http://www.dukeblueplanet.com/bptv.asp

The video is called "Champions," the third choice under "Culture and Tradition" (default section). I believe the highlight you are looking for is the last clip. Blue Planet has really become a great site in the past year.

PS Who is that announcer? After watching that clip I now occasionally shout "YO YO YO!" when I see really cool things happen.

[CoBlueDevil]

Oh my!!!! Jay Williams against Virginia. Holy crap that was sick. Hopefully we can get some of that with Ky.

[davekay1971]

Gawd, I remember that dunk!!!

Thanks for linking the DBP video - awesome. And, off topic, but do you find yourself watching JWill and thinking, "If Kyrie really can come in here and be THAT good...".

I've said before that IMHO Grant is the best to ever wear the Duke uniform. Doesn't hurt at all that he's also an alumnus that we can always be proud to call our own.

[LSanders]

I've said before that IMHO Grant is the best to ever wear the Duke uniform. Doesn't hurt at all that he's also an alumnus that we can always be proud to call our own.

A few years ago, I went to a woeful Clippers game ... Only because they were like Trinity West at that time (Brand, Maggette, and Ewing, plus almost-Devil Shaun Livingston and coached by honorary-Dukie Dunleavy).

They were playing the Suns. As you can imagine, Grant was the smartest player on the floor ... Always in the right place ... Still capable of blowing by defenders or making a stop.

But, one of the little things I remember is that every single time one of the waterboys brought him a towel or a drink, he'd smile, make eye contact and say thanks. I'm not sure if any other player on either team even looked at the kids. He's such a class act in so many, many ways!

-----------------------

P.S. - I agree about JWill ... Every time you see clips like this to remind you of his incredible speed and quickness ... WOW!! Let's HOPE KI's the second coming!

[Class of '94]

Thanks for putting that link up. It brings back so many memories. Again, the crazy thing about that dunk was that it was in a half-court set as opposed to running full court and dunking the ball like Grant did in the Kansas game.

And on a side note, if KI is truly a combination of J-Will and Chris Duhon, we, as Duke fans, are going to be in for a real treat next year and hopefully the year after that.

[Class of '94]

Didn't Hurley miss the game at Tech? I thought it was Brian Davis who threw the pass. It was an amazing dunk, either way.

Sorry to get my facts wrong about who threw the pass I was just fixated on how great a dunk that was by Grant at Ga Tech.

[yancem]

That video was sick. It has been so long since I have watched videos of the past greats that I forgot just how amazing some of those guys were. It's been so long since Hill was in Detroit that it easy to forget that he was once one of the most dominate players in the league. I second the notion that Hill was the most gifted and talented player to wear a Duke jersey under K (my recollection players prior to the 80's is fuzzy and I never saw Heyman or the other greats from the 50's and 60's).

As much as it pains me to wonder what if when it comes to Hills career, it is just as painful to think about Williams and Hurley's what if's. I'm not sure how good Hurley would have ended up being. He certainly would have had a long and successful career but I don't know if he would have definitely been an all star. Williams on the other hand I think would have been dominate. If Hill is the most gifted and talented Duke player, Williams was probably a close second.

[theAlaskanBear]

That video was sick. It has been so long since I have watched videos of the past greats that I forgot just how amazing some of those guys were. It's been so long since Hill was in Detroit that it easy to forget that he was once one of the most dominate players in the league. I second the notion that Hill was the most gifted and talented player to wear a Duke jersey under K (my recollection players prior to the 80's is fuzzy and I never saw Heyman or the other greats from the 50's and 60's).

As much as it pains me to wonder what if when it comes to Hills career, it is just as painful to think about Williams and Hurley's what if's. I'm not sure how good Hurley would have ended up being. He certainly would have had a long and successful career but I don't know if he would have definitely been an all star. Williams on the other hand I think would have been dominate. If Hill is the most gifted and talented Duke player, Williams was probably a close second.

I will always remember watching Jay hit that triple double against the nets with 26 14 and 13. He was truly transcendent.

[moonpie23]

grant just had a sick block in the game....it makes me sad to wonder what if with bobby and jay, but at least i get to see grant playing this great ball...

[striker219]

http://www.dukeblueplanet.com/bptv.asp

The video is called "Champions," the third choice under "Culture and Tradition" (default section). I believe the highlight you are looking for is the last clip. Blue Planet has really become a great site in the past year.

PS Who is that announcer? After watching that clip I now occasionally shout "YO YO YO!" when I see really cool things happen.

That instantly became one of the best things I've ever seen, start to finish.

Too awesome for words.

[yancem]

I will always remember watching Jay hit that triple double against the nets with 26 14 and 13. He was truly transcendent.

Yeah, I really thought that was going to be a statement game that led to a string of all star appearances. Unfortunately, now we can only day dream about what might have been.

[gumbomoop]

For someone who scored so little, Grant was arguably the most important contributor to the Suns' win tonight. Incredible defense, 12 rebounds, key assists, smart play every moment. Doug Collins noticed.

As one who doesn't follow NBA much, I did not know that tonight was the first time Grant won a playoff series.

[WillJ]

Congrats to Grant for winning it for a third time. I think he should celebrate the award by elbowing Hansbrough in the nose next year.

[moonpie23]

Congrats to Grant for winning it for a third time. I think he should celebrate the award by elbowing Hansbrough in the nose next year.

look i don't know if this is sarcasm or not...but i'm tired of all the Hansbrough nose references....it was a clean block, all ball and hansblah hit his nose on the floor...go back and look at the tape...





oh, and yeah, what you said about congrats to grant...he was awesome..