Basketball legend Grant Hill will succeed Jerry Colangelo as the new managing director of USA Basketball’s men’s team following the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, per a press release issued on Saturday (via The AP’s Tim Reynolds).
Hill, 48, will assume the role with a resume that includes 19 NBA seasons and seven All-Star team selections. He was a member of the 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame class and helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.
“It’s just an incredible opportunity, also an incredible challenge,” Hill said. “I had the good fortune of participating in international play — the Pan American Games, of course the Olympic team — and I have been a fan of Team USA going back to the 1984 Olympic team when I first started to fall in love with basketball. The more I thought about it, the more intrigued, excited and the more willing I was to roll up my sleeves and move forward with this awesome responsibility.”
It will be no easy task for Hill replacing Colangelo, who joined USA Basketball in 2005 as managing director after Team USA won the bronze medal in 2004. The former Suns owner helped shaped the program for years to come, selecting players and coaches to help USA Basketball compete for gold.
For three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012, 2016), Team USA took home gold medals led by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, and will play under current Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich in Tokyo. Hill intends to work closely with Colangelo during the Tokyo Olympics in preparation for taking over the reins.
“I intend to spend an incredible amount of time with Jerry, shadow him some this summer, and I think that experience will certainly help as we move forward,” Hill said. “He’s just an invaluable resource and has done a remarkable job, so you can’t help but learn from someone like Jerry.”
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), talks about Hill succeeding Colangelo had been ongoing for months. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was a “big proponent” of Hill’s candidacy for the position, Wojnarowski adds.
Hill, who has worked as an analyst for Turner Sports covering the NBA and NCAA, will remain in that role after taking over the Team USA job, Reynolds reports. In the meantime, he is focused on the challenge of building and sustaining a winning national team.
“The brain is working,” Hill said.
Great choice. Loved him as a player and one of my faves when he was on the court. Smart. Great IQ on and off the court.
Agreed. I was actually at the playoff game when he got injured when I was a kid. Never forgot that. Even still, he was able to eventually have a long career as a 2 way player/valuable rotation player. People dont realize how good he really was
I thought he was one of the best during his time. His defense, while noticed, was still under appreciated. He’s be in my top 5 if I had a pickup game going. If he and McGrady were healthy, I wonder how good that team could’ve been.
Considering they might have got Duncan in that scenario as well, probably really, really good. I agree. Especially before the injury, he was one of the best. Still was extremely productive in short samples after the initial injury/during his injury situations in Orlando
He deserves it…
Yes
Glad he is able to roll up his sleeves after all the excitement.
As long as he doesn’t do what USA soccer president Gulati did and try to minimize the Americans on the American team.