Duke basketball champ botches his all-time Blue Devil lineup
By Matt Giles
The small forward in Williams’ all-time Duke basketball five: GRANT HILL
Jason Williams kept his lineup out of the garbage can — at this point, anyway — by putting Grant Hill (1990-94) at the three. The 6-foot-8, 225-pound versatile sensation out of Virginia was the talent who propelled Duke over the hump in April battles. Prior to his arrival in Durham, the Blue Devils had made eight trips to the Final Four without a single crown to show for it.
It’s no coincidence that each of Hill’s first two seasons ended with One Shining Moment. That said, perhaps most telling of his overall impact is the fact that despite being the only bonafide star still in town at the time, Hill’s final quest for a banner fell only five points short of what would have been Duke’s third natty across his four years.
Hill, who was a two-time consensus All-American before going No. 3 overall at the 1994 NBA Draft and then becoming the all-time professional Blue Devil, has to rank inside any Duke fan’s top three of all time. Otherwise, said fan seriously needs a Duke basketball history lesson.
Podcaster Arthur Kade took the argument one step further for Hill, whose diverse statistical dominance on both ends of the floor helps to support the following claim:
“Grant Hill’s the greatest player to ever wear a Duke uniform.”
Well, there are a couple of other guys who could also put forth rather convincing arguments for such a title, even if Williams somehow failed to include one of them in his all-time lineup (more on that here in a bit). It’s hard to knock the man, though, for nominating his former teammate at the four-spot…