Grant Hill helped the US win Olympic gold in 1996. He would have been on the team again in 2000 had he not been injured. And he was one of the school kids to beat the first “Dream Team” in scrimmage for the 1992 Olympics.
Now USA Basketball is bringing him back.
Hill will become general manager of the national men’s team after the Olympic Games in Tokyo, USA Basketball said Saturday. He will replace outgoing Jerry Colangelo, in a move where one Basketball Hall of Famer takes over for another in the pivotal role of assembling teams competing for gold.
“It’s just an incredible opportunity, also an incredible challenge,” said Hill on Saturday. “I was lucky enough to compete in international competitions – the Pan American Games, of course the Olympic team – and I was a fan of Team USA and went back to the 1984 Olympic team when I first fell in love with basketball. The more I thought about it, the more intrigued, excited, and willing to roll up my sleeves and move on with this amazing responsibility. ”
Hill’s resume is elite. He played 19 NBA seasons, was an All-Star seven times – which probably would have been more if not for the ankle issues that derailed his career – and made five All-NBA teams. At Duke, he helped win the Blue Devils national championships in 1991 and 1992.
Hill entered the Hall of Fame in 2018 and worked as an NBA and college basketball analyst for Turner Sports for nearly a decade. And he’s on the broadcast squad for the Men’s Final Four this weekend in Indianapolis, the sixth straight year he’s on that crew.
He remains on the air after taking his job in American basketball.
“Grant is a proven leader with consequence and character who will continue to help us achieve our dual goals of winning international competitions and representing our country with honor,” said Martin Dempsey, USA Basketball Chairman of the Board of Directors. and a retired general. “In making this announcement, I would also like to emphasize how much everyone involved in USA Basketball appreciates Jerry Colangelo for everything he has done for USA Basketball over the past 15 years.”
And Colangelo did a lot.
The role of general manager was created for him in 2005, after the Americans lost three games at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and returned with an extremely disappointing bronze medal. Colangelo has since oversaw the process of selecting players and coaches, bringing in Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski – who led the US to Olympic gold in 2008, 2012 and 2016 – and now San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich to serve as head coach.
In major leagues with Colangelo as director, the American men have gone 97-4. Colangelo’s departure was not unexpected; the 80-year-old made no secret of his plans to retire after the Tokyo Games, which were postponed for a year until this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I plan to spend an incredible amount of time with Jerry, shadowing him a little bit this summer, and I think that experience will certainly help as we move on,” said Hill. “He’s just an invaluable resource and has done a fantastic job, so you can’t help but learn from someone like Jerry.”
No matter what happens in Tokyo, Hill will take over at a hectic time. The delay of these Olympics compresses everything; The next Basketball World Cup is only two years away and the Paris Games are only three years out.
Hill knows the rest of the world is catching or catching up with American basketball. He predicted this would happen in 1996, when he was part of Dream Team II winning gold in Atlanta, and he’s not alone in believing the game has found a new gear internationally due to the success of the first Dream Team four. . years before.
Hill was a 19-year-old sophomore when he was brought in along with Bobby Hurley, Chris Webber and others to beat the US team with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing and more. The school kids won 62-54 in that first scrimmage; Since then, debate has raged over whether American coach Chuck Daly pitched the game to make it clear that no team was unbeatable, but there’s no discussion of how that day in California helped the NBA stars come together.
“We had a good time,” said Hill. “That experience – getting the chance to practice, learn from, spend time with arguably the best team ever assembled – it wasn’t a formal event with a medal ceremony and the like, but it was certainly a pivotal moment for me. and my development and my growth as a player. “
Hill’s job that day was to beat the best in American basketball. His job in the future will be to make sure this doesn’t happen.
He’s already starting to plan.
“The brain works,” said Hill.