Grant Hill has his fair share of North Carolina stories from his time as an all-time great Duke basketball player.
But this story might top them all.
Hill, a former All-American and ACC Player of the Year and two-time national champion as a Blue Devil, will be courtside for the matchup between Duke and UNC in the Final Four in New Orleans on Saturday night. He’ll be calling the game as part of the TBS broadcasting crew, providing commentary alongside Bill Raftery (analyst), Jim Nantz (play-by-play) and Tracy Wolfson (sideline reporter).
The retired NBA star surely has his own war stories about battling the Tar Heels from his playing days. And he was part of some of the most iconic moments in Duke and college basketball history. (His full-court pass to Christian Laettner, who hit a game-winner to send Duke to a Final Four in 1992, hasn’t finished making its due March Madness rounds on the internet yet.)
But this game, with these stakes, is a bit different than those other ones. They’re impossibly and irrevocably high — the winner earning “the highest high,” Hill acknowledged on a press conference call via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon, and the loser suffering “lowest of lows.”
And Hill will have his hand in this moment, too.
“It’s hard to believe that they’ve never played each other in a tournament game,” Hill said. “But it’s also fitting that we get this treat as basketball fans, as broadcasters, to have these two great schools compete against one another in Coach K’s last run.”
Hill said that his time at Duke does not affect the way he analyzes a game. He cited recent examples: He was on the broadcast team that covered the Blue Devils in 2018, when they lost to Kansas in the Elite Eight. He also was assigned to follow them through their run in 2019 — when the team featuring Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett lost in the Elite Eight to Michigan State.
And although Saturday is glaringly different, Hill’s approach to broadcasting won’t change, he said.
“When you’re preparing for a game, and you’re in the game, and you’re lost in the game broadcasting, you’re objective,” Hill said. “You’re trying to tell these kids’ stories. You’re trying to react to what’s happening. You’re trying to explain to the audience what you see, what we see as a broadcast crew. And sometimes you might offer your opinion on what’s happening, or what’s not happening, or what a team needs to do to get back into the game. …
“I think we have a job to do, and that job is to broadcast, to call it, to do all the things that I explained just now.”
Hill laughed in acknowledgment that some fans may never accept his neutrality, and that might be elevated on Saturday.
“I think back to even when Carolina won (in 2017),” Hill said. “I think of those great teams with Joel Berry, Justin Jackson. I was genuinely excited for those kids, which is almost sacrilege as a Blue Devil to say that. But as I said earlier, you get to know them, you get to study them. You learn their stories. And you have a responsibility to call the game and give them that moment that I was fortunate to have 30 years ago, and to honor and celebrate the moment if and when that happens.”
Hill won’t be alone in having a personal relationship with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on Saturday’s call.
Raftery, the longtime college basketball analyst, said covering Coach K on his final run and being able to do so on the Final Four stage is “pretty personal.” He said he got to know Krzyzewski when he was at Army, and they became friends.
“Just to follow him, particularly in those days via the ESPN coverage of Duke in the early 80s,” Raftery said, “and just to see him grow to this iconic stature and knowing that he possesses the same human humility traits that he’s had back in those days, it’s just been great for basketball from my seat.”
