Grant Hill has led a long and fascinating basketball life. From winning a National Championship at Duke, to becoming a phenom in the NBA, to struggling for years with injury after injury, to becoming one of the league's most valuable locker room leaders, to setting himself apart as an excellent NBA TV analyst, to partial owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and eventually, to the host of a beloved '90s reboot: NBA Inside Stuff.
Everyone loved Inside Stuff with Ahmad Rashad. What's it like to take over this reboot? Did you feel a lot of pressure taking that over?
First of all, it was a tremendous honor when they asked me to do it, and I was all for it. I like to say that them choosing me to do this is like having a sequel to a great movie and casting an actor who had never acted before. [laughs] But, yeah, at first it was challenging for me, because I had never done this before. But trying to find your own voice takes time, and after a few months...
Actually, ironically, I ran into (original Inside Stuff hosts) Willow Bay and Ahmad Rashad at the White House during my first year of doing the new show, and they were very supportive and encouraging and were fans, and so once that happened, and I got their blessing, I feel like I was able to settle down and find my rhythm.
I imagine you were a subject in the initial run, right?
Oh, yeah. I was on. I was interviewed multiple times by Ahmad and Willow and Summer Sanders. So to start off having been a fan watching it when it first aired when I was in college, and then to be on it featured when I was in the league, and now to be able to bring that franchise back and host it, has been really neat. It's fair to say I have a lengthy relationship with the show.
So in the mid-2000s, the Phoenix Suns famously had this training staff that could seemingly rejuvenate even the most injury-prone player's career. They became semi-legendary for it. Now, you had trouble with injuries over the years and you played for those Suns teams, so you seem like the perfect person to ask: Was that staff really as good as everyone said? What made them different from every other training staff in the league?
I had struggled with my ankle and my health, Steve Nash had some issues coming out of Dallas, Shaquille was sort of looked at as being damaged goods at that point. So for the three of us to all at once, in our advanced years, be able to stay healthy and play at a higher level than people expected considering the wear and tear we took over the years was pretty remarkable. I just would say that they look at the body as a whole. A lot of its preventative medicine. They were constantly evaluating your body. Looking for imbalances. Looking for restrictions and limitations, and then as soon as they would find them they would work to fix them. What I learned from them was that you could have a sore calf, but it might not be because something is wrong with the calf, it might be because your hip on the opposite side is tight. So the body would compensate for these little imbalances or issues and cause symptoms away from the problem. And so they would constantly look for those and fix them before they became serious, and that helped eliminate a lot of the knick-knack injuries that can sometimes lead to more serious injuries.
Speaking of your injury history, a lot of kids who are just getting into the NBA now and see you on Inside Stuff probably don't know that there was a time early in your career where you were the league's heir apparent. Just a dominant force in Detroit. But then when injuries derailed your career (and we're talking the type of injuries that would have ended a lot of people's careers), you were able to seamlessly transition into being one of the league's all-time great glue guys and role players. How were you able to navigate that transition?
Well, I was at a pretty high level early in my career and was on track to do some really amazing things, but then obviously had the ankle ordeal, which was a comedy of errors in some respects, and took away a good portion of four or five of my years. And, I think as I reflect now, obviously you want to play and you want to compete, and because things change you're kind of forced to adapt. And some guys aren't able to accept that. I think for me, the blessing and the curse... I missed four years.
Derrick Rose missed two years to put that in perspective. So when you come back from an entire ordeal like that, your mindset, at least for me, wasn't to come back and have the attitude like "I'm the best player in the world" like I had prior to my injury. I just sort of came back happy to be back. And that's a good thing, maybe in some respects. It made me really appreciate the game. I was able to enjoy it from a different perspective.
But on the flip side, I think I kind of settled. And if I could go back, I would have tried to push myself to not just be happy to be back, but fight harder to get back to that high level. If that makes any sense.
That said, I'm still proud of what I was able to accomplish, and more a sense of fulfillment for my career after the injury, knowing what I was able to overcome, than what I was able to do before. But in hindsight, I wish I could have come back with the same goals and the same standards. But it's tough, because you miss four years, you're going to be thankful and just happy to be back.
How would you say that the league has changed the most since you were drafted?Well, the league has gotten a lot younger. I'll give you some perspective. If you go back from 1991 to 1997, the first picks that came in: Larry Johnson, Shaq in '92, Chris Webber in '93, Big Dog '94, '96 Allen Iverson, '97 Tim Duncan. These guys were transformational players. These were guys you could build a franchise around. They made an immediate, all-star level impact from day one. And I think in recent years you've seen some examples of first picks, who because they're younger, it's going to take time for them to get to that level. So that's a big difference, you don't have guys coming in ready to be All-Stars in their first year. But they are younger than we are, so they just need a little more time.
You're famously one of the smartest guys to have played in the league, would you want to dip your toe in the head coaching game?
No. My relationship to the game through television and through being an owner of the Atlanta Hawks is great. I'm happy, fulfilled, content doing exactly what I'm doing now. And I don't anticipate having the desire to coach in the near future.
Speaking of the Hawks, what is like to be a part of the ownership group? And, I don't know if you're allowed to talk about it, but what were your thoughts on the rumors surrounding the Hawks and the trading deadline?
It's a lot of fun being an owner. We bought the team this summer, and we have a great managing partner. We have a lot of work to do, and we have to roll up our sleeves to do it, but we have some really good people on the management side. Both the business and basketball sides. We're excited about being stewards. There are four areas that we judge ourselves on. One is being leaders in the community. Two, putting a superlative product on the court. Three, providing our fans with a quality, top-notch in-game experience whether in-person or on television or radio. And four, doing all we can to just enhance Atlanta as a city. If we can do those four things, we feel like we're doing well.
As for the other noise, I really can't talk about that, because we have decided when we took over that any personnel moves or anything of that nature will be handled by Coach Bud and the basketball operations staff.
Can you talk a little about the NABC Good Works Team and your work with them?
For the third year, I've been associated with this Allstate NABC Good Works team. It's one of the highlights of the year for me. It's the fourth year of the program. We have over 150 nominees. We narrow that down to ten finalists from basketball programs all over the country. NCAA Division I, II, III NAIA Divisions I and II. So to be able to bring those kids to the Final Four to recognize them for all the good work they're doing in their communities is what it's all about.
What are your thoughts on the recent rash of head coach firings (Blatt in Cleveland, Hornacek in Phoenix, Fisher in New York, etc.)?
I actually predict three to five more teams will fire coaches this summer. And I think there'll be seven, eight teams looking for head coaches this summer. Why? Well, expectations now are, you want to see progress. You want to see continued improvement. And for a lot of these teams that hasn't been the case. But this isn't the first time there's been a large-scale wave of coaching changes, and I think if you want to be a head coach this will be a good summer, because there will be jobs available.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
