Grant Hill is in the Hall of Fame because of the Phoenix Suns

When the Phoenix Suns signed Grant Hill, he was washed up, broken down, and fading away. The most games he had played in a single season in his prior seven years was 67, and he averaged just 28.6 games over that stretch. Had he not signed with the Suns, he would have never been in the Hall of Fame.

In the ESPN 30 for 30 Films documentary This Magic Moment,  Penny Hardaway states at one point that he retired seven years too late. His knee injuries had cost him the majority of the latter half of his career, and he went from a shining star, talked about as the next Magic Johnson, appearing to be a hall of famer at the outside of his career, to fading into the Miami Beach sunset, a shell of his former self.

In 2007, the same probably could have been said about Orlando Magic small forward Grant Hill. In 2000, Hill had signed a seven-year, $93 million contract with the Magic as part of a sign-and-trade (he was to be paired up with Tracy McGrady who too signed a seven-year $93 million deal).

But immediately injuries took their toll on Hill, and after seven incredibly unsuccessful (and highly expensive) seasons with the Orlando Magic, in which he had played:

2000-01: 4 games
2001-02: 14
2002-03: 29
2003-04: 0
2004-05: 67
2005-06: 21
2006-07: 65

it was time for Hill to move on. (The seventh season of Hill’s contract was a $16,901,500 player-option, which he exercised, after only playing in 21 games the season before.)

(For fun: Hill earned $456,000 per regular season appearance in Orlando. Had he happened to have played in all 574 possible games over those seven years, he would have earned an average of $162,021 per game.)

Missing a total of 374 games over that stretch, by the summer of 2007, Grant Hill was a shell of his former self, nowhere near the superstar he had been proclaimed as when a member of the Detroit Pistons (when he was the “air” apparent to “air” Jordan), and as far as anyone could possibly have surmised, if he had retired just then, he too never would have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

And then he received a call from Phoenix Suns General Manager Steve Kerr.

The Suns, needing depth, Hill needing a change of scenery, and Phoenix with the widely-believed best training staff in the NBA, was the perfect destination, and thus the third chapter of his career began.

Hill signed a two-year $3.8 million deal with Phoenix, pennies on the proverbial dollar compared to what he was earning as a former superstar with Orlando.

Of course it helps that fellow future Hall of Famer Steve Nash was running the show, but in Phoenix, Hill, already 35-years-old when the 2007-08 season began, was able to stay healthy, and using his versatility with regained confidence in his ankle and body, stepped in as the roster’s fourth best player, rebranding himself as a solid defender and consummate professional who accepted his status as a role player, scoring points only when Nash found him for a shot.

After missing 65.3% of possible games with the Orlando Magic, in his five full seasons in Phoenix, Hill missed only 8.8% (35 games), and even tied for the league-lead in games played (82), in 2008-09, only the second time in his career he appeared in every game in a season, the first being the 1998-99 lockout shortened year (50 games).

Of course his scoring statistics were never as high as they were with the Pistons, and although lower than they were with Orlando, not that much lower (Hill averaged 19.9 points per-36 minutes for Detroit, 18.3 pp-36 with Orlando, and 14.5 pp-36 with Phoenix). As a rebounder, he remained right on par averaging 7.2 rebounds per-36 minutes with Detroit, 5.5 rp-36 with Orlando, and 5.7 rp-36 with Phoenix.

Hill was instrumental in replacing Shawn Marion after Marion was traded for Shaquille O’Neal, and a key figure in Phoenix’s surprising run to the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.

For such a formerly huge star, the 2010 playoff run was the one and only time that Hill made it out of the first round of the playoffs. Having made the playoffs six times prior (four with Detroit and one with both Orlando and Phoenix), 2010 was the only opportunity Hill ever had to perform both in the Semifinals and Conference Finals in his career. Unfortunately he never again made it out of the first round, and only made one more playoff appearance, one game with the Los Angeles Clipper in 2013.

All-and-all, Hill’s suddenly healthy body coupled with the blessing of playing with Steve Nash, both resurrected a once seemingly lost career, while also allowing him to both play long enough and compile enough statistics to impress Hall of Fame voters in a first-ballot selection.

Although he never won an MVP, his last All-Star appearance came eight years prior to his retirement (he made seven total, playing in six), he never won a title, and only made it out of the first round of the playoffs once, Grant Hill is a Hall of Famer because of his five seasons with the Phoenix Suns.

Congratulations to him, and the entire 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame class. Each member is worthy of the distinction, and adding four former members of the Phoenix Suns (Grant Hill, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, and Charlie Scott, is hugely important to our beloved franchise.