NBA Injuries: 20 Stars Who Deserve A Career Do-Over

1. Grant Hill

It truly is sad how many people are unaware of this next statement of fact, but here it goes: If it weren’t for injuries, Grant Hill may have gone down as one of the 10 or 20 greatest NBA players of all time. It’s no exaggeration to say he was LeBron James before there was LeBron James.

In his first six seasons in the league, Hill became a fantastic role model both on and off the court. Though he didn’t quite measure up to the greatness of Christian Laettner during his Duke days, he quickly surpassed him in the pros, displaying a two-way brilliance and all-around versatility that made him one of the game’s most unguardable triple-double threats.

Sharing Rookie of the Year honors with Jason Kidd, Hill averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.9 blocks per game in his first season. Hill was never much of a three-point shooter, but in just his second NBA season, Hill was damn near posting a 20-10-7 stat line.

Seriously, if it weren’t for the fact that Hill is assured a Hall of Fame spot because of his college exploits (two NCAA championships and three NCAA title game appearances), he should get in anyway, if only for a “what-if” clause based on his first six seasons alone. During that span, he averaged 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game on 47.6 percent shooting.

He also earned five All-Star nods (including his rookie season, when he became the first rookie in any of the four major pro spots to lead all players in All-Star voting), five All-NBA selections (one First Team and four Second Team) and tallied an absurd 29 triple-doubles in that six-year span. He was a fantastic defender, an electric dunker and finished third in MVP voting in 1997.

Though his Pistons never found much playoff success, he also had very little help early in his career. From 1995-96 to 1998-99, he led all non-guards in assists, and he also joined Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history to lead their teams in scoring, assists and rebounds more than once.

In his best season (1999-00), Hill averaged an eye-popping 25.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

Unfortunately, heading into the playoffs that season, he sprained his ankle. Trying to play through the injury, Hill made it even worse, and was soon part of a sign-and-trade to the Orlando Magic, where he was planning on signing in free agency anyway.

But what began as a promising, budding partnership between Hill and Tracy McGrady was uprooted by Hill’s ankle injuries, which limited him to a meager four games, 14 games and 29 games in his first three seasons there before missing the entire fourth one entirely. Hill looked more like himself in 67 games during his fifth year in Orlando, but the season after that, he only played 21 games. By then, the dream was dead.

During those unbearably tough seven years with the Magic, Hill encountered numerous ankle injuries, a groin injury, a sports hernia, a bruised left shin, a nagging left knee injury, a sore tendon and a MRSA infection that nearly killed him, resulting from an ankle procedure. He literally almost died for the game of basketball.

For such a promising player, Hill’s NBA career was like a real life Series of Unfortunate Events. What might have been, oddly enough, doesn’t bother Hill that much — something he’s admitted in numerous interviews. But it’s certainly disheartening to the rest of us who wonder where he would have landed among the NBA’s all-time greats otherwise.

WHY COULDN’T YOU HAVE JUST SIGNED WITH NIKE INSTEAD OF FILA BACK IN 1997, GRANT? WHY???

According to Basketball-Reference.com, Hill is one of just 19 players in NBA history to get to 17,000 points, 6,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists for his career. Of those 17, the 12 eligible for the Hall of Fame are currently enshrined. The other six — Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Jason Kidd — will be surefire Hall of Famers as well.

If you’re still somehow not convinced, consider that Oscar Robertson is the only player in NBA history other than Hill to average at least 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game through his first six seasons.

More hoops habit: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time

Hill will probably get into the Hall of Fame because of his prestigious college career and those first six years in Detroit, but among injury-related what-ifs in NBA history, what might have been for a healthy Grant Hill tops the list.