LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS GRANT HILL RETIRES FROM NBA - ALL-MET ELITE

LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

GRANT HILL

RETIRES FROM NBA

ALL-MET ELITE

 

SOUTH LAKES HS.

RESTON VA.

 

Reston native Grant Hill announced Saturday he is retiring after 18 seasons in the NBA.
Hill graduated from South Lakes High School in 1990. He went on to win two NCAA championships at Duke and was named an NBA All Star seven times.
The 6-foot-8 Hill averaged 16.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals in his career.
"Now is the time to move on," he told USA Today on Saturday. "I feel great physically. It's important to go out feeling good, particularly considering all the setbacks I had health-wise throughout my career."


"I'm a Virginia boy," Hill told the Fairfax Times in 2010 "
My father was in the World Football League so we lived in Hawaii for a while but then I moved to Reston in 1975, when I was 4, and spent most of my younger days here."

"For a kid, such as myself, who was very active, there were a lot of opportunities to compete and practice any sport I was into at the time," Hill, told The Fairfax Times. "We had great youth leagues and that really encouraged kids to get out and be active and play and have fun. There were a lot of great leagues and parks and playgrounds."

There was a "special time," said South Lakes basketball coach Wendell Byrd, who took a young 14-year-old Hill and forced him on to the Reston-based high school's varsity basketball team. Hill became the first freshman to ever skip the freshman and junior varsity teams and go straight to the varsity squad at the Northern Region's powerhouse program. And he didn't like it.

"He struggled with it at the beginning, he didn’t want to surpass his peers, he wanted to continue to stay with them and not hurt their feelings," said Byrd, who called the freshman Hill a "gentle giant," who eventually "saw the light," Byrd added.

 

Once Hill realized his potential, it was obvious that he would go far. "Coach Byrd was huge," said Hill. "I think for me first and foremost putting me on varsity as a freshman. At first, I kind of resisted it, but he led me to varsity. I think he saw the ability and talent before I saw it myself." 

 

Hill's senior year he carried the Seahawks to the school's first Northern Region championship after winning the Great Falls district titles in every season since his freshman year. Hill is still the school's second all-time leading scorer with 2,028 points (No. 1 Joey Beard, 2,138, 1993). He holds the school records for rebounds (942), blocked shots (160), steals (274) and assists (311).

 

HILL SOON BECAME one of the most highly recruited players in the nation. He became one of few McDonald's All-American selections in the Northern Region's history. Top college coaches were making time to travel to Reston to see the 6-foot-8 guard/forward dominate games.