Tag: Grant Hill

Grant Hill wins second Olympic gold medal, this time as Team USA managing director

Almost three decades after his 1996 gold medal, Grant Hill won gold again in France on Saturday, this time as the Team USA managing director.

[autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] might have been the only former Duke basketball star on the court for the United States at the 2024 Olympic Games, but he wasn’t the only Blue Devil to win gold.

Grant Hill, one of the best Duke basketball players of all time, helped put Team USA together as the team’s managing director.

Hill was appointed to the position in April 2021, giving him the responsibility of overseeing the American squad for the 2024 Games.

The former Blue Devil actually won gold as a player back in 1996 with the United States, and while he may not match Tatum’s two gold medals on the court, he’s got a second Olympic triumph to his name now.

Hill did more than just put together the Olympic roster. He also assembled the USA Select Team for training camp, a squad that featured future Duke star [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag]. Flagg said recently on The Brotherhood Podcast that Hill was the reason he made that roster, an appearance that led to NBA players, coaches, and scouts singing his praises.

Cooper Flagg says Duke basketball legend Grant Hill helped get him on USA Select Team

During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, Cooper Flagg said Duke legend Grant Hill helped get him on the USA Select Team.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] didn’t need the stock boost of attending Team USA Olympic training camp with the Select Team. After all, he was already the top-ranked player in the Class of 2024 and the presumptive favorite for the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft.

Once he went viral for dunking on Team USA, however, all bets were off. National analysts and fans were calling for NBA teams to throw in the 2024-25 towel to enter the Flagg sweepstakes.

According to Flagg during a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, former Blue Devil Grant Hill might have helped that happen.

Sophomore teammate Caleb Foster, who hosted Flagg’s half-hour appearance on the podcast, asked Flagg about Hill, the managing director of Team USA.

“I think he definitely had a bigger pull in me getting the invite to go out there,” Flagg said. “I think it was mostly him. So, I mean, I’m really blessed that he gave me that opportunity and looked at me in that way.”

Flagg did more than prove Hill right, earning praise from NBA scouts and players like Kevin Durant for his performance with the Select Team.

Grant Hill reflects on Christian Laettner’s iconic 1992 buzzer-beater against Kentucky

The NCAA released a video on Saturday of Grant Hill reflecting on Christian Laettner’s iconic Elite Eight buzzer-beater against Kentucky.

The NCAA said they posted the video to commemorate Grant Hill’s journey to Team USA Basketball, but Duke basketball fans know there’s never a bad time to relive Christian Laettner’s 1992 buzzer-beater against Kentucky.

The NCAA shared a minute-long video of Hill reminiscing on the all-time moment, the shot that sent the Blue Devils to the Final Four. Laettner may have hit the shot, but Hill credited legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski for keeping the team in the moment.

“The feeling of ‘We’ve lost’ with 2.1 seconds left,” Hill said. “And having a huddle with Coach K and how he took command of that huddle and had us believe that we had a chance.”

Hill heaved the inbound to Laettner all the way at the free throw line, and the Duke big man unthinkably took the time for a single dribble before lofting up a shot. It found the net, giving Duke a one-point victory and continuing the march to a second consecutive national title.

“We were kids,” Hill said. “And we didn’t understand the magnitude of the moment. We didn’t understand that that would be an iconic moment that people would relive.”

Hill and Laettner both won a gold medal at the Olympic Games with the United States, Laettner first in 1992 before Hill won his in 1996. Hill now oversees Team USA Basketball as the managing director, and he and Jayson Tatum both seek another gold medal in Paris.

Duke basketball posts photo of three Blue Devils stars from Team USA Olympic training camp

The Duke basketball team was well-represented at the Team USA Olympic preparation, as showcased by one photo of three Blue Devils on Monday.

The 2024 Olympic men’s basketball team for the United States wouldn’t exist without several key Duke alums, at least not in its current form. Few college programs can match the Blue Devils’ representation in Las Vegas during the preparation camp this weekend.

Boston Celtics star [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] joins the team for a second time after he helped the United States win a gold medal in Tokyo three years ago. Now, he gets to participate in the Olympics as an NBA champion after the Celtics breezed through the playoffs.

Incoming freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] also got to participate as a member of the Select Team, a group of opponents for the Olympic team to scrimmage against to sharpen their skills. Even as the only active college player on the roster, Flagg went viral multiple times for his performance and caught the eye of several NBA scouts over the weekend.

Two-time national champion [autotag]Grant Hill[/autotag] even contributed, helping sculpt the team as the managing director. Duke fans enjoyed all three stars together in a photograph shared by the team.

For those counting, there’s an NBA title, two NCAA national champions, nine total All-NBA teams, and two top-three NBA draft picks in this photo. And Flagg’s career hasn’t even started yet. It’s reasonable to think that, by 2035, these three might be the three Duke basketball players with the best NBA careers.

Cooper Flagg joins USA Select Team as only college player, will practice against US Olympic team

Cooper Flagg was the only college basketball player named to the USA Select Team on Friday with the goal of helping the Olympic team prepare.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag]’s trajectory into stardom continues to rise at nearly meteoric levels.

He was as decorated a high school recruit as the prep ranks have seen in quite some time, and now, as we close in on seeing him play for the Duke Blue Devils in under six months, Flagg can add another incredible achievement to his resume.

The USA Select Team will help the country’s Olympic team practice ahead of this summer’s games in Paris, and Duke’s star freshman is the only college player set to join said Select Team from July 6-8.

At 17, Flagg becomes the first college player to play or practice with the U.S. national team since Doug McDermott and Marcus Smart participated at a minicamp for NBA stars in Las Vegas in 2013.

In many ways, this could be a harbinger of things to come for the talented forward. Six members of the current Olympic Team served on Select Teams, and 30 players who served on select teams went on to play for USA Basketball at either a FIBA World Cup or the Olympics. More than anything, he gets to test himself against the best players the USA has to offer, even before ever playing a minute in college basketball.

Team USA enters the Games as the top-ranked team in the world, but after a disappointing showing (by USA standards) at last year’s FIBA World Cup saw the Americans finish in fourth place, Team USA vowed to come back stronger in France. Managing director [autotag]Grant Hill[/autotag], another Duke legend, assembled names like LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Joel Embiid, and Kawhi Leonard for the Olympic squad

It was an incredible job doing so and one Hill should be proud of. The real work begins as Team USA now has to gel as a unit and prepare to play, a goal the Select Team is meant to help with.

The amount of insight and tips Flagg can learn in those days practicing against  Team USA could be invaluable as he partakes in his only season in the NCAA.

Flagg is no stranger to USA Basketball. He was a team member that won gold at the 2022 FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup. He was picked as USA Basketball’s male athlete of the year for 2022, becoming the youngest player ever to win that honor.

There is also precedent for Select Team members joining the official roster in the event of injuries or other events. Keldon Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs was a Select Team member and ended up on the Olympics roster for 2021.

If that were to happen, Duke’s two highest-rated recruits from the 2024 class playing in the Olympics in Flagg and center [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], who is set to play for South Sudan.

Grant Hill on why the 2023-24 Boston Celtics are actually underrated

It is hard to look back and not see the signs of greatness in our midst as well with the benefit of hindsight.

Given how the Boston Celtics have stumbled in the past in deep postseason runs, it is hard to blame people for doubting that the Celtics were a true title contender this season. But now, at this point, it is hard to look back and not see the signs of greatness in our midst as well with the benefit of hindsight.

We, as a collective fan base of a sport, if not for Celtics fans themselves as a monolith, have underestimated this team. And people are starting to take note, such as retired NBA great Grant Hill, who recently broke down how Boston has been underrated all season long on a recent episode of the “Rich Eisen” show.

Take a look at the clip embedded below to hear what they had to say.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Where to watch Duke’s first-round matchup with Vermont

Check out where and when you can find the Blue Devils on television (and see which Duke legend will be on the broadcast) here.

Duke will get its 2024 NCAA Tournament started on Friday evening with a first-round battle against Vermont, but where can you watch the game on television?

Blue Devils fans around the country can tune in to CBS to watch the opening game against the Catamounts, with tipoff set for 7:10 p.m. ET on Friday.

The game, which takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, will also be available through Paramount Plus, the CBS streaming service.

Ian Eagle will run play-by-play for the game with Bill Raftery and Duke legend Grant Hill joining him on the microphone. Tracy Wolfson will be the sideline reporter for the game.

How did Duke finish the regular season during their five championship runs?

The Duke men’s basketball team has won five national championships. Here’s how those five regular seasons went.

Duke men’s basketball is one of the esteemed college programs only measured by its trophy case.

After all, regular-season wins and conference tournament titles are nice, but once you’ve won five national championships, it’s hard for much else to feel like a successful season.

Those expectations can be crushing, especially if you apply them to each game of a regular season. However, even the five eternal teams in Blue Devils program lore weren’t perfect from start to finish over their regular seasons, even if most of them were pretty great.

Here’s a look back at how Duke finished each of the five regular seasons before it cut down the nets.

USA Basketball’s Grant Hill impressed by play of Houston’s Jalen Green

After watching Jalen Green this week, @usabasketball managing director Grant Hill tells the Houston Chronicle: “He played well. He’s dynamic. He’s explosive. He’s very confident.”

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Third-year Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green earned praise from media observers for his recent play with the U.S. Select Team, and it appears the higher-ups with USA Basketball agree.

As part of Select Team duties, Green and other young NBA talents such as Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren scrimmaged and practiced against the men’s senior national team as it prepared for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

With Cunningham operating as a point guard and lead ballhandler, Green worked in more of an off-ball capacity relative to his 2022-23 role with the Rockets. But Green appeared to thrive in that usage. That could bode well for a 2023-24 season in which Green will line up in the backcourt with a new point guard Fred VanVleet.

Grant Hill, formerly an NBA star and now managing director of the USA Basketball men’s national team, was impressed by Green’s play. Hill tells Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:

He played well. He was one of the few guys that I had not seen in person. I obviously had seen him in highlights and on videos, even going back to high school. He’s dynamic. He’s explosive. He’s very confident.

A skilled and really talented player, he might not have been featured as much … but there were some moments. There were situations where you saw his gifts and his talents. It was very impressive.

Hill pointed to the arrival of VanVleet and new head coach Ime Udoka as reasons to believe in the continued growth of Green, who might be in line for more U.S. national team work in the future.

“All of that, for a guy like Jalen, is a great chance for him to really grow,” Green told Feigen. “I think he’s ready, and that team is ready to take a step this season.” Read the complete interview here.

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Grant Hill: LeBron James deserves more respect

Former NBA star Grant Hill has Michael Jordan at the top of his list, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love or respect LeBron James.

One of the age-old debates in basketball is who the greatest player of all time is.

For the past several years, that debate has evolved into an argument about whether LeBron James has equaled or surpassed Michael Jordan.

Some of this debate falls upon generational lines, as Millennials are more likely to put the Los Angeles Lakers superstar in the top three, or even at the top, while Gen Xers and Baby Boomers tend to feel Jordan is the greatest ever by a mile.

Former NBA star Grant Hill, a Gen Xer, may feel that Jordan is the greatest, but he also feels that James gets disrespected too much.

“… in my opinion, Jordan is the G.O.A.T., but I hate the conversation because in order to justify it we put down the other, and so it’s like, LeBron’s incredible. What he has done – the pressure from a very young age, how he’s lived up to the expectations, and what he’s had to ensure that I don’t think Michael Jordan had to endure … the slander, you didn’t see or feel that or hear that back in the day. … Jordan didn’t have to experience [that]. LeBron had that added burden of just hearing it from everywhere, and how he’s been able to tune that out and go out and play and be a pass-first guy who could very well be the all-time leading scorer … . Those old heads who love Jordan, I don’t think we fully appreciate what LeBron has done in this environment that he’s in and how he’s done things off the court. He’s taken it to a whole ‘nother level – empowering his friends, building multiple platforms. … I’ve really admired him as a player and just being that face of the league for so many years. But no player has ever endured … as much vitriol and abuse and slander as LeBron James had endured.”

Throughout Jordan’s career, he was universally loved, and fans and the media alike wrapped him up in a warm embrace over the years as the gold standard of basketball and athletic excellence.

For much of James’ career, he had enjoyed similar recognition, but over the last few years, he has grown polarizing for whatever reason.

Lakers fans seem to have a love/hate relationship with him. While they appreciate the fact that he brought them their most recent NBA championship and made the team relevant again, many of them despise his alleged disproportionate control over personnel decisions and accuse him of putting his personal goals ahead of the team’s goals.

Perhaps James will become more universally appreciated after he hangs it up for good.

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