Duke basketball: The 10 greatest NBA Blue Devils of all time
By Matt Giles
All-time top 10 Duke basketball pro: No. 1 Grant Hill
Seven years removed from his 19-year pro career that lasted beyond his 40th birthday — playing for four franchises in all — the 17,137 points in the league from Grant Hill still looks safe for awhile atop the ranking of all NBA Blue Devils. After all, the No. 1 active player on the list is Kyrie Irving with still 5,295 fewer points than the two-time Duke basketball national champion.
Perhaps even more impressive, Hill also ranks No. 1 among NBA Blue Devils in assists with 4,252, which is 1,229 more than the total of No. 2 Jeff Mullins and 1,240 more than the No. 1 active amount of Irving. Oops, forgot to mention that Duke’s 1993 NABC Defensive Player of the Year also sits No. 1 among his Brotherhood NBA brethren with 1,248 steals.
Wait, there’s even more worth pointing out in order to understand Hill’s all-around greatness. He’s No. 4 among NBA Blue Devils with 6,169 rebounds, No. 5 with 576 blocks, No. 2 with 1,026 games played, No. 2 with 34,776 minutes played, and No. 2 in both made and attempted free throws (the wizardly smooth crossover slasher ended up 4,228-for-5,498 all time from the line).
He managed all that despite playing in a total of only 37 games from age 28 to 31 — aka the peak years for most all-time greats — while constantly trying to recover from ankle surgeries. Had Hill not missed so much time during his prime, which resulted in the disappearance of his extreme-level athleticism, he might’ve landed on the shortlist of the greatest to ever play the game.