Grant Hill is one of the underrated talents in NBA history. Many people call him one of the biggest what-ifs ever, and Paul Pierce tends to agree.
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This man glided by his primary defender with ease whenever he wanted to. He was one of the biggest triple-double threats in league history, especially because of his world-class playmaking ability.
The first 6 years of his career were spent in Detroit with the Pistons. He couldn’t get together a good supporting cast alongside him in Motor City, so he left for Orlando in 2000.
But before he did, he displayed exactly how much of a generational talent he was to the whole league. And Paul Pierce felt the full force of it during his rookie season in the league with the Celtics.
“Grant Hill scored on me, I fouled him or he got an assist on every play for the last 5 minutes”: Paul Pierce
Paul Pierce was on the Knuckleheads podcast last year, a few weeks before Covid became a worldwide pandemic. Darius Miles hit the Celtics legend up with his routine first question: Who was the first person to bust yo a**? Pierce responded with Grant Hill:
“For me, it was Grant Hill. The Detroit Pistons Grant Hill with the teal jerseys. I swear on everything I love, the last 5 minutes of the game, he either scored, I fouled him, or he got an assist for somebody to score.”
“And it was just like, I felt like I lost the game. I think he had like 38 (points), 15 assists, 12 rebounds, and I’m in the locker room feeling defeated, I almost wanted to cry.”
“And you know the crazy thing about this? Grant Hill was the player who I idolized. When I was in high school, I’m looking at Duke. I’m like oh him, Steve Smith from Michigan State, and I’m trying to pattern my game after them.”
“And so I’m ready for this, you know, idols become rivals! So I’m ready to D it up, and I’m lilke ‘Ah, this s*** ain’t it, right here. I need to get back in the lab, straight up.'”
