Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American professional basketball executive and former player who is a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a part-owner of Orlando City SC of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). He is also part of an ownership group that purchased the Baltimore Orioles in 2024. Hill also works as a basketball analyst for CBS, NBC and Turner Sports.
A four-year player at Duke University, Hill was touted as one of the greatest college basketball players ever. In the NBA, he played for the Detroit Pistons, the Orlando Magic, the Phoenix Suns, and the Los Angeles Clippers, mostly at the small forward position. Hill is a seven-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA selection, and a three-time winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 1994 ACC Player of the Year, a two-time NCAA All-American, and a two-time NCAA champion, Hill is generally considered one of the best ever to play for the Duke Blue Devils.
After graduating in 1994, Hill was selected by the Pistons with the third overall pick in the NBA draft. He was the co-winner of the 1995 NBA Rookie of the Year Award with Jason Kidd. Early in his NBA career, Hill was widely considered one of the best all-around players in the game, often leading his team in points, rebounds and assists. In his first six seasons in the NBA, Hill averaged 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game and made the Eastern Conference All-Star Team five times.
An ankle injury in 2000 changed the trajectory of his career. It plagued him for several years, led to a March 2003 surgery that was followed by life-threatening complications, and forced him to miss the entire 2003–04 season. In 2005, Hill made the Eastern Conference All-Star Team as a member of the Magic. He played in the Western Conference Finals in 2010 with the Phoenix Suns. In the 12 seasons after his ankle injury, Hill averaged 13.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. On June 1, 2013, Hill announced his retirement from the NBA.
In 2015, Hill and Tony Ressler were part of an ownership group that purchased the Atlanta Hawks. In 2023, Hill and his wife, Tamia became part owners of MLS club Orlando City and NWSL club, Orlando Pride.
College career When the time came to choose a college, Hill's mother told the Fox Sports documentary Beyond the Glory, that she wanted him to attend Georgetown, while his father preferred the University of North Carolina. Hill decided to attend Duke University, playing four years with the Blue Devils and winning national titles in 1991 and 1992. Duke became the first Division I program to win consecutive titles since UCLA in 1966–73. Despite losing two of the biggest contributors on the Blue Devils, Christian Laettner (in 1992) and Bobby Hurley (each of whom went on to play in the NBA), Hill led Duke to the championship game once again in 1994, but lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Hill won the Henry Iba Corinthian Award as the nation's top defensive player in 1993, and in 1994 he was the ACC Player of the Year. During his collegiate career, Hill became the first player in ACC history to collect more than 1,900 points, 700 rebounds, 400 assists, 200 steals, and 100 blocked shots. As a result of his successful college career, he became the eighth player in Duke history to have his jersey number (33) retired. After his freshman season at Duke, Hill played on the bronze medal-winning U.S. team at the 1991 Pan American Games, held in Havana, Cuba. As an amateur, Hill was also part of the select team of college players that prepared and scrimmaged against the eventual U.S. men's basketball team ("Dream Team") for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Hill also is widely known for his role in the Hail Mary play in the NCAA tournament regional final against Kentucky in 1992, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest college basketball games of all time. With Duke down 103–102 in overtime and 2.1 seconds remaining after Kentucky's Sean Woods hit a floater, an unguarded Hill heaved the inbounds pass 75 feet across the court into the hands of Laettner, who dribbled once and spun before pulling up to make the game-winning jumper from just outside the free-throw line as time expired. Hill later produced a film, Duke 91 & 92: Back to Back about the team's consecutive wins and this game-winning play. In 2016, Hill was inducted into the Duke Sports Hall of Fame
Touted as one of the best players in Duke history, many went as far as to say that Hill was one of the greatest college basketball players of his era.Brodess, Doug (October 24, 2011). "Duke Basketball: Top 10 Blue Devils of All Time". Bleacher Report. Retrieved April 7, 2022. In 2002, Hill was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team honoring the fifty greatest players in ACC History.
Professional career
Detroit Pistons (1994–2000) Hill was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the third pick in the NBA draft after graduating from Duke in 1994. He generally played the small forward position during his NBA career. In his first season, he averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.77 steals per game, and became the first Pistons rookie since Isiah Thomas in 1981–82 to score 1,000 points. Hill ended up sharing NBA Rookie of the Year Award honors with Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, becoming the first Piston since Dave Bing in 1966–67 to win the award. Hill also won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award. He was named to the all-NBA First Team in 1997, and All-NBA Second Teams in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Hill also regularly played in the NBA All-Star Game, where he made history by being the first rookie to lead an NBA All-Star fan balloting in (1994–95) with 1,289,585 votes, narrowly defeating Shaquille O'Neal. Also, he became the first rookie in any of the four major professional sports leagues to lead all-star fan voting.
In his second season (1995–96), he once again led the All-Star fan balloting, this time edging Michael Jordan (Jordan's first All-Star game after returning since retiring in 1993). During the 1995–96 season, Hill showcased his all-round abilities by leading the NBA in triple-doubles (10). He also won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta as a member of the U.S. men's basketball team, where he had the team's fifth-highest scoring average (9.7) and led the team in steals (18). In 1996–97 season, Hill averaged 21.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. He became the first player since Larry Bird in 1989–90 to average 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in a season, an accomplishment that had not been duplicated until Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double in the 2016–17 NBA season. Once again, Hill led the league in triple-doubles, where his 13 triple-doubles represented 35 percent of the league's triple-double total that season. He was the league's Player of the Month for January and was also awarded NBA's IBM Award, given to the player with the biggest statistical contributions to his team. He finished third in MVP voting, behind Karl Malone and Michael Jordan.
Much like Scottie Pippen with the Bulls, Hill assumed the role of a "point forward" in Detroit, running the Pistons' offense. As a result, between the 1995–96 and 1998–99 NBA seasons, Hill was the league leader in assists per game among non-guards all four seasons. In the lockout-shortened 1999 season, as he led his team in points, rebounds and assists for the third time, Hill joined Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history at the time to lead their teams in scoring, rebounding and assists more than once. Hill and Chamberlain were the only two players in league history to lead their teams in points, rebounds, and assists per game three times. Hill was selected to play in the 1998 FIBA World Championship, but in the end, no NBA players played in this tournament due to the lockout.
In the 1999–2000 season, Hill averaged 25.8 points while shooting 49% from the field, the season's third-highest scoring average, behind MVP Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson. He averaged 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. However, despite Hill's accomplishments in Detroit, the Pistons never made it far in the playoffs, either losing in the first round (1996, 1997 and 1999), or missing the playoffs entirely in the 1994–95 and 1997–98 seasons. The 2000 playoffs would be no different. On April 15, 2000, 7 days before the start of the playoffs, Hill sprained his left ankle in a game against the Philadelphia 76ers. He continued to play until the first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat, in which his injured ankle got worse, and Hill was forced to leave halfway through game 2. Eventually, the Heat swept the Pistons, 3–0. Hill was initially selected for the 2000 Olympics U.S. team, but could not play due to the ankle injury. That ankle injury would prove to be a major liability for many years to come.
After the first six seasons of his career, before the ankle injury, Hill had amassed a total of 9,393 points, 3,417 rebounds, and 2,720 assists. Oscar Robertson, Bird, Luka Doncic and LeBron James are the only four players in league history to eclipse these numbers after their first six seasons.
Orlando Magic (2000–2007) As an unrestricted free agent, Hill had planned to sign with the Orlando Magic. On August 3, 2000, however, a sign-and-trade deal allowed Hill to receive a slightly more lucrative contract while Detroit received at least some compensation for losing him. The Pistons signed Hill to a seven-year, $92.8 million contract and traded him to Orlando for Chucky Atkins and Ben Wallace. The Magic hoped he would team up with budding superstar Tracy McGrady, who had been signed away from the Toronto Raptors at that time, to return Orlando among the NBA elite. But Hill was hampered by ankle injuries, playing in only four games in his first season with the Magic, 14 games in his second and 29 in his third. He was forced to sit out his entire fourth year with Orlando (2003–04). Despite missing so much time due to injury during his first seasons in Orlando, Hill still provided solid production when he was able to play, averaging 18.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per 36 minutes during the 2002–03 NBA season. Meanwhile, his former team, the Pistons, who had defeated the Magic in the 2003 playoffs, but ended up losing to the New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals, won the championship the following year in 2004.
In March 2003, Hill underwent a major surgical procedure in which doctors re-fractured his ankle and realigned it with his leg bone. Five days after the surgery was performed, Hill developed a 104.5 °F (40.3 °C) fever and convulsions and was rushed to a hospital. Doctors removed the splint around his ankle and discovered that Hill had contracted a potentially fatal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. He was hospitalized for a week and had to take intravenous antibiotics for six months.
In the 2004–05 season Hill, though hampered by a bruised left shin that caused him to miss several games, started and played 67 games for the Magic. By then, the Magic had traded away McGrady for Steve Francis, another ball-dominant guard, in what was viewed as one of the biggest trades of the decade. Hill was named the Eastern Conference player of the week for the week between November 15–21, 2004. Over the season, Hill averaged 19.7 points per game on a .509 field goal percentage. Fans voted him an All-Star starter again, and he led the Eastern Conference All-Star Team to a victory over the West. Also, after the season, Hill was awarded the Joe Dumars Trophy presented to the NBA Sportsmanship Award Winner.