Okay, so was talking about this with the young'un @JimboBBN, when discussing the Jordan doc and great players...
For those people who actually saw him play...just how good was Grant Hill, if you take into consideration his injuries? Was he just "good"? Was he VERY good? Was he great, but injuries and lack of good teammates hurt him? Was he an all-time great in terms of how good he was who just got hit with terrible luck?
For perspective...
Before his injury season, Hill had career averages of 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game which at that point, had only been matched by Oscar Robertson through six seasons. He led his team every year pre-injury in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Hill joined Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history to lead their teams in scoring, rebounding and assists more than once. The complete list of players to roll up more than 9,000 points, 3,000 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 500 steals and 200 blocks through their first six NBA seasons is three names long: LeBron James, Larry Bird and Grant Hill. He led the league in triple doubles for a number of seasons, having nearly 40% of the triple doubles of the entire league during one season. He was an elite defender. He was the leading vote getter in the NBA All Star game as a ROOKIE, the first player in any of the major sports to do that, getting more votes than Jordan, who had just returned from his baseball retirement. He made the All-Star team every year there was an All-Star game in his pre-injury career, was a top 10 vote getter for the MVP voting every year pre-injury (coming in 3rd behind Malone and Jordan one year), and was inducted into the HoF a few years ago.
Magic Johnson was a fan....
And Grant's 33 best plays...
Oh, and since RealGM lets you sort by teammates, the five teammates he played most with pre-injury were...
Lindsey Hunter
Joe Dumars (in the last three season of his career)
Terry Mills
Don Reid
and
Jerome Williams
BTW, for folks who don't know, his ankle injury was insane. He developed a terrible staph infection at one point that nearly killed him. He missed all but four games in his first season with Orlando, played in only 14 and 29 games his next two seasons, and then missed the entire 2003-04 season, If you ever read about his injuries, they are pretty stunning, and the fact that he still came back and played for a decade is pretty awesome.
So... hypotheticals are always fun, injuries are fascinating to try to account for, and we are all stuck without sports.
For those who SAW him, how good was he?
For those people who actually saw him play...just how good was Grant Hill, if you take into consideration his injuries? Was he just "good"? Was he VERY good? Was he great, but injuries and lack of good teammates hurt him? Was he an all-time great in terms of how good he was who just got hit with terrible luck?
For perspective...
Before his injury season, Hill had career averages of 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game which at that point, had only been matched by Oscar Robertson through six seasons. He led his team every year pre-injury in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Hill joined Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history to lead their teams in scoring, rebounding and assists more than once. The complete list of players to roll up more than 9,000 points, 3,000 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 500 steals and 200 blocks through their first six NBA seasons is three names long: LeBron James, Larry Bird and Grant Hill. He led the league in triple doubles for a number of seasons, having nearly 40% of the triple doubles of the entire league during one season. He was an elite defender. He was the leading vote getter in the NBA All Star game as a ROOKIE, the first player in any of the major sports to do that, getting more votes than Jordan, who had just returned from his baseball retirement. He made the All-Star team every year there was an All-Star game in his pre-injury career, was a top 10 vote getter for the MVP voting every year pre-injury (coming in 3rd behind Malone and Jordan one year), and was inducted into the HoF a few years ago.
Magic Johnson was a fan....
And Grant's 33 best plays...
Oh, and since RealGM lets you sort by teammates, the five teammates he played most with pre-injury were...
Lindsey Hunter
Joe Dumars (in the last three season of his career)
Terry Mills
Don Reid
and
Jerome Williams
BTW, for folks who don't know, his ankle injury was insane. He developed a terrible staph infection at one point that nearly killed him. He missed all but four games in his first season with Orlando, played in only 14 and 29 games his next two seasons, and then missed the entire 2003-04 season, If you ever read about his injuries, they are pretty stunning, and the fact that he still came back and played for a decade is pretty awesome.
So... hypotheticals are always fun, injuries are fascinating to try to account for, and we are all stuck without sports.
For those who SAW him, how good was he?
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