Duke has had some incredible players over the last several decades, and Christian Laettner is the greatest. There’s a difference between greatest and best however, and Grant Hill is almost certainly the best player Duke has produced.
He seemed destined for a legendary NBA career and actually he had one, just not for the reasons everyone expected: Hill had an ankle injury in 2000 and had an unbelievably tough time getting past it. He had several surgeries and after one in 2003, Hill developed an MRSA infection that became life-threatening.
Ultimately, after much criticism for supposedly being injury prone, Hill earned vast respect for his grit and perseverance. He adjusted to his life post-injury and built a 19-year career, something that seemed impossible around 2004 or so.
Since then, as this article points out, he’s gone on to build an immense net worth and seemingly has his hand in everything. He does real estate, owns part of the Atlanta Hawks and various soccer teams, works for CBS as a basketball analyst and put together the2024 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team that won gold.
He’ll be in town this coming weekend as Duke’s commencement speaker and you kind of suspect that perseverance might be part of his message
