For those who don’t know, Grant Hill is Team USA’s active managing director. His role is assigning and selecting players to be on the United States and represent in the Olympics, which is going on right now.
This is important context because this context almost cost fans the opportunity of seeing stars like LeBron James not to be invited to play for Team USA in this Olympic season. Hill, who was an absolute baller in the NBA, didn’t know how well James would have been and if age would have taken a toll on him.
How do fans know this is how Hill thought and felt? The Athletic interviewed him and gave his honest opinion.
“I also know, like, it can be exhausting, and the summer is an important part of your preparation for the upcoming NBA season. So I didn’t know what they had. Like I didn’t know fully what level they would play at. You can hope that they play at a certain level. So there was some uncertainty, I’ll be honest.”
While the main attention was on LeBron, due to him being the oldest, Hill also had his reservations about Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant playing. They were alluded to from the quote above, which makes sense given the sense all three of them endured and given their ages.
However, sticking with LeBron, Hill did address his concerns and how the opposite of those concerns came to life.
“Maybe it’s being paranoid, but what if LeBron at 39 1/2 years old, can’t be at that level? Then what?” Hill asked before pointing out that the opposite has actually happened. “He’s far exceeded that, and if anything he came in (to training camp) in probably the best shape (of any player on Team USA). He was the best player in the exhibition games and at times has been our best player in (Olympic) games thus far.”
As it stands right now, obviously, Hill made the right choice of not only inviting these three, but especially LeBron. He’s seen as the MVP currently and is set to take on France Saturday afternoon.
Team USA is fighting for gold, as, for those in the U.S., it is at 12:30 PM (3:30 PM EST).
