Grant Hill and Jason Kidd, who shared Rookie of the Year honors in the 1994-1995 season, both announced their retirement within days of each other after 19 years in the NBA as members of the Los Angeles Clippers and the New York Knicks, respectively.
I remember both of them when they first entered the league, Kidd with the Dallas Mavericks and Hill with the Detroit Pistons. Kidd is likely to go into the Hall of Fame as one of the best point guards to play the game. He averaged 12.6 points, 8.7 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 1,391 regular-season games, and won an NBA championship with the Mavericks. He also won two gold medals in the Olympics.
Hill probably won't make it into the Hall of Fame. Although he was an amazing player when he first entered the league, a series of injuries have derailed his career. He still left with an average of 16.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.2 steals in 33.9 minutes per game, after playing in a total of 1,026 games (972 starts). Hill never won an NBA championship, but he was part of the 1992 championship team at Duke and won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics. Hill was the one who passed the ball to Christian Laettner, who then turned and made a jump shot that sent Duke to the 1992 Final Four and to every NCAA tournament highlight reel since then. Hill is also known as one of the classiest guys in the league, and it's impressive how much he has fought back from injuries again and again.
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