Grant Hill
(BBR: #52)
It's easy to forget what a great player Grant Hill once was when he has spent so many seasons as a role player or on injured reserve, but he was once one of the league's top players and the heir apparent to Michael Jordan before injuries derailed his career.
In his rookie season, Hill firmly established himself as a rising star, averaging 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists while leading all players in All-Star voting and winning the Rookie of the Year Award. He was the first rookie in any major American sports league to lead all players in fan voting for the All-Star Game, and he was already the best player on the Detroit Pistons.
Over the next 5 seasons, he was one of the top 10 players in the league every year, and in 1997 he put up some historic numbers. That year, he became just the fifth player in history to average at least 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists per game, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, and Larry Bird in that select club. No player has accomplished that since.
What followed was nothing short of tragic. Hill injured his ankle late in the 2000 season, then was traded to Orlando in the offseason, where he missed a total of 364 games over his seven seasons with the Magic, an average of 52 games missed per season. He had numerous ankle surgeries during that time, and nearly died once when he contracted a major infection after one operation.
Rather than retiring, Hill signed with Phoenix as a free agent, where he has been a starter and a captain for the past few years, but he is not the star player he was at his peak. Hill's star power never led to playoff success, as he was on the winning side in a playoff series for the first time in 2010, making him the oldest first-time playoff series winner in history.
It may look like Greer had a better and longer career than Grant Hill, and in many respects that is absolutely true. So why is Grant Hill ranked ahead of Greer in my all-time rankings? The only reason that I can see is that Hill was the best player on his team for 6 straight years, and he was one of the league's top 10 for five of those seasons, while Greer was always playing second fiddle to more talented teammates. No disrespect to Greer, but if Hill had been able to maintain his level of play through his prime, he would have been one of the top 20 players of all time, and there would be no discussion over which of these two was the best player.
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