Season averages of 21.4 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 7.3 APG, and 1.8 STLPG might look like an early LeBron statline but it’s pure vintage Grant Hill. If not for a pesky string of ankle injuries, Hill was on route to be a Scottie Pippen–LeBron James hybrid. But despite an injury-altered career, he was still able to turn in a very respectable 17 years as a dependable option for the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Clippers.
Before retiring a few days ago, Hill turned in numbers of whose summit only a small slice of the league’s many alumni have reached. In its 60-year history, only 16 other players have matched Hill’s logs of 17,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, and 4,000 assists (as documented by ESPN). Among them are Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Karl Malone, Jason Kidd, and Kevin Garnett. Of course, when most think of Hill, his pedigree doesn’t conjure the respect that Bryant’s or even Kidd’s does.
A look at his seventh season shows why.
After six seasons with Detroit, Hill was projected for a generational career. Just three years into his NBA run, he finished third in MVP voting behind the era’s juggernauts Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. Hill was just 24 years old. That year, he also logged 13 triple-doubles and the 21.4 PPG-9.0 RPG-7.3 APG-1.8 STLPG statline seen above that only Larry Bird has ever matched. Before putting on a Magic jersey, Grant had collected over 9,300 points, 3,400 rebounds, and 2,700 assists―a six-year start that has only ever been bested by Oscar Robertson, LeBron James and Larry Bird.
In year 7, after going for 25.8 PPG, 6.6 RPG, and 5.2 APG the year before, Hill only played in four games. As mostly his point stat shows (13.8 PPG), 2000-01 was the beginning of Hill’s decline from potentially one of the best to ever do it to a perhaps top-200 career player. In 2003, he would miss an entire year of playing time as he went through injury rehab.
 He retires with respectable career averages of 16.7 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.2 STLPG that only slightly mirror the huge upside he once had.
 We’re talking about a guy who can say that along with Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, and LeBron James, he was able to average at least 20 PPG, 5 RPG, and 5 APG in his first six seasons. Something Kobe, Kidd, Duncan, Shaq, and Garnett―some of Hill’s best contemporaries―could not, and did not, do.
 Hill was once on the heels of godliness, even if the latter part of his 17-year career doesn’t reflect that. And he should be celebrated for it.
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