In 1994, they came to the league together; in 1995, they each lifted the trophy of best rookie; in 2013, they both ended their long careers; and in 2018, they were inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame together.
19 years is too long for a professional player. In the 12-13 season, Hill has become the league's second-oldest player and Kidd third. If they continue to play, what will happen in the 1314 season is that they will be in the same league as a player named Glenn Robinson III. The man's father, Glenn Robinson, nicknamed "Big Dog" — the man who ranked ahead of Kidd and Hill in the 1994 draft — retired in 2005.
In fact, neither Hill nor Kidd left the NBA perfectly. Kidd averaged just 19 minutes per game in the last ten games of his career, making a total of 0-of-17 shooting and scoring no points. Hill is on one of the best teams in the West, but has only made one appearance in the playoffs, and after the team was killed by the Grizzlies, Hill continued to be out of the championship.
However, in their respective basketball careers. This regret is nothing at all. They continue to reap the rewards and suffer from setbacks.
Kidd once took stock of his career this way: "There are two things in my career that are tied for the most important, one is to help the Mavericks win the NBA championship, and the other is to win two Olympic gold medals. The most important thing left is to share the NBA's rookie title with Grant Hill. ”
Kidd has a lot of honors on his resume, he is the second most assisted and the second most steals in NBA history, he has been selected as an All-Star 10 times, selected the Best Team six times, the third in the history of triple-doubles, and he represented the U.S. men's basketball team in international competitions with 56 wins and 0 losses.
Even so, Kidd still has a lot of regrets. In 2002 and 2003, Kidd led the Nets to the Finals twice, but was eliminated by O'Neal and Duncan at their peak. Kidd has always regretted the loss of the Finals. "It was my best time after all." Kidd said. After helping the Mavericks win the championship in 2011, I remember to be a little relieved. For Hill, it seems like there are more regrets and fewer honors.
He is from the prestigious Duke school and has won two NCAA championships. He was named an All-Star starter in the NBA's rookie season, was once known as "The Next Jordan", was one of the NBA's signature stars, and received a lot of advertising sponsorship. He could have had a career that didn't lose to Kidd, but injuries ruined everything. "If you had the opportunity to give your younger self a piece of advice, what would you say to yourself?" Someone asked. Hill's answer was sad, "If you have an ankle injury, no matter who says anything to you, you have to sit down and heal the injury before you say it." ”
In the first six years of his career, Hill has only missed 23 games. In the second half of the 99-00 season, he suffered an ankle injury, but has been playing with an injury "with the doctor's permission". In game two of the first round of the 2000 playoffs, he injured his ankle again and had to undergo surgery. He signed with the Magic in the summer of the same year and then made a hasty comeback with constant injuries and four more surgeries on his ankle. During the Magic's seven seasons, Hill missed 374 games, including the entire 03-04 season.
For a long time, Hill was very resistant to the "talk about the past." It wasn't until he came to Phoenix in 2007 and his health gradually improved that he talked more and more about those terrible years. On his 40th birthday in 2012, he said, "Ten years ago I was 30 years old, my basketball career was full of uncertainties, and no one would believe I could play until I was 40. I had my third ankle surgery at that time, and over the years, I tried not to think about those things. ”
Phoenix gave Hill a lot of good memories. Nash is a good teammate and the team plays well for Hill, who reached the Western Conference Finals in 2010, the farthest Hill has gone in the playoffs. Even so, when others talk about Hill, they can't help but feel sorry for him. Hill himself was already relieved.
There was an official photo 26 years ago of Kidd and Hill once back to back, each holding a best rookie trophy, with a heartfelt smile on their faces, and the lights around them seemed to herald their bright future. A lot of time has passed. One day in 13 years, a reporter showed hill the photo and wanted to hear him tell the story of that year. Hill was sitting in front of the locker room closet, with a thick layer of ice band wrapped around his right knee and his left foot soaked in an ice bucket, and he stared at the picture for a long time, then smiled and said, "That's another life." ”
In "Another Life," Hill is a healthy genius who is full of competition with Kidd. This competition began very early. In 1989, Kidd and Hill, who were still high school students, met at a training camp for a certain brand, and later Hill entered Duke University under the famous coach K. By the time Kidd entered the University of California in 1992, Hill had already won two NCAA titles. But in 1993, when Duke University hit a three-game winning streak, he bumped into Kidd. 1 minute and 11 seconds before the end of the game, Kidd made an unbalanced layup, and then Kidd earned a free throw opportunity from Hill to help the team establish a two-point lead and eventually eliminate Duke University.
The only time Hill University didn't reach the NCAA final in four years was thanks to Kidd, who was a year younger than him. For Kidd, however, although he beat Duke, he never reached the final four of the NCAA. Then the two were selected by the NBA one after the other. Kidd was in the top spot, but early in his career, Kidd played the role of catch-up. In the first 6 years of entering the NBA, Hill did everything very well. In those 6 years, he averaged more than 20+5+5 per game, and only 4 people before him were able to do that, Jordan, Bird, Jerry West and Big 0 Robertson. In the 1999–00 season, Hill averaged 25.8 points per game. A more comprehensive season was the '96-97 season, where he averaged 21.4 points, nine rebounds and 7.3 assists per game. His lightning-fast first steps and delicate technique are known as Jordan's "successors."
That season, he had 13 triple-doubles.
Three doubles, from one side reflects the competitive situation between two people. In fact, the first of the two to get a triple-double was Kidd. Kidd's versatility and open vision give him a unique advantage in harvesting triple-doubles. On April 5, 1995, Kidd scored his first career triple-double. Just two days later, Hill also scored his first career triple-double, and the following season, Hill had 10 triple-doubles and Kidd nine. When Hill finished with his 29th and final triple-double, Kidd also had 24 triple-doubles.
Hill often played a variety of anti-heaven performances, and the highly competitive Kidd was once anxious about it. Whenever Hill got a triple-double, Kidd would always look through the newspaper the next day, and Kidd explained, "I have to see what he's done, and I have to do something to keep myself from being dumped by him." ”
Admittedly, Hill suppressed Kidd slightly on a triple-double. Here, there is also a statistic worth playing with. In January 2018, Kidd became the second player in 11 years to score a triple-double in three consecutive games. When he looked through the historical statistics, he found that it was Hill in 1997 who came ahead of him. Two young people, in the process of chasing me, it is inevitable that there will be feelings of envy and jealousy, and Hill is no exception. While he was plagued by injuries, Kidd led his team to the finals in 2002 and 2003. In the twilight of his career, Kidd also received a championship ring. Hill candidly admits to being jealous, "I congratulated him after he won the championship, but I was actually very jealous of him. ”
Kidd said he understood: "We're all old, but we all love to compete. ”
In the final season, Kidd was asked the same question, "What would you say to yourself if you had the opportunity to give your younger self a piece of advice?" ”
Kidd replied without hesitation: "Shoot more shots, not always pass the ball out." "It's certainly a strange piece of advice for a player with more than 12,000 assists that would take Kidd to the other side. Maybe Hill wouldn't be surprised by Kidd's answer, and if you talked to Hill about the two meeting at training camp in 1989, there might be more than a dozen versions of the story, but he would definitely tell you something like, "Do you believe it?" Jason loved to shoot at the time, and he shot a lot. ”
Everyone has an unfamiliar side, and for Kidd, one of them is that he really likes to score in his bones. In addition, there is another point in Kidd's personality that is also hidden - he was originally a thorn, and Kidd had the experience of forcing the head coach as early as the university era. Later, during the Mavericks' "3j" period, the conflict between Kidd and Jim Jackson made a mess of the team atmosphere. In life, Kidd was seriously damaged by the "domestic violence" incident, and in 2003, he even had an irreconcilable gap with the then coach Scott.
But after returning to mavericks in 2008, he became much more moderate.
As for Hill, there had never been a similar annoyance, he had always been a gentleman. Hill had a good tutor, his father was a football player, and his mother was a girlfriend of former U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton. He has received a lot of popularity, such as the former first lady Michelle Obama, who said she had always regarded Hill as her younger brother. Not to mention the fans, he was voted into the All-Star starting lineup by the fans in the rookie season, and after his comeback in the 04-05 season, he was still the darling of the fans and was selected as an All-Star starter. He takes care of his family and doesn't go out and fool around like most players. He was versatile, and when he first entered the Pistons, he once went on an away field, and when the whole team passed through the hotel lobby, Hill sat in front of the piano in the lobby and fiddled with it a few times, and the melody was melodious, surprising the whole team to find the north. In short, Hill is the kind of man anyone would be willing to marry his daughter to, and if it weren't for the injury dragging him back to the mortal world, he would be a little unreal.
After returning from injury, hill, although in poor shape, became an inspirational model. The NBA has an award called the "Moral Style Award", which was awarded to the personable and tenacious Hill in 2005 and 2010. It is worth mentioning that Kidd and Hill ended up together, and in 12 and 13 years, Kidd won this award for two consecutive years, becoming a gentleman player and moral model on a par with Hill.
Of course, there are also people who don't recognize such players, such as villain-like Rodman, "Hill is very good, but you can't expect everyone to be him." He also referred to Hill as a "pretty boy" and mocked him for being soft on the side of the game.
Surprisingly, however, there is also an unknown side to the healthy Hill in his heart. In an interview, I was asked who would you like to become if possible? His response was: "I chose Dennis Rodman." He didn't give an explanation, and maybe the reason was simple, if he could do it all over again, he wanted to try it and be the complete opposite of himself. Nightclubs, women, drugs, cross-dressing, stadium violence, even crying during the game...
Hill's answer, in fact, is the same as Kidd's answer, what would it be like to be a guy who desperately tries to score points instead of just passing? Of course there was no chance to see it. In the new season, Kidd, who has five years of coaching experience, will take up dallas again, and this time he will definitely have assistant coaching experience, which is worth looking forward to.
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