Grant Hill will become the men’s national team managing director following the Tokyo Olympics, USA Basketball said Saturday. He’ll replace the retiring Jerry Colangelo, in a move where one Basketball Hall of Famer takes over for another in the critical role of assembling teams that will compete for gold. “It’s just an incredible opportunity, also an incredible challenge,” Hill said Saturday.
Jerry Colangelo Rumors
Grant Hill: “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.”
Hill went into the Hall of Fame in 2018 and has worked as an NBA and college basketball analyst for Turner Sports for nearly a decade. And he’s part of the broadcast team for the men’s Final Four this weekend in Indianapolis, the sixth straight year he’s been on that crew. He will remain in broadcasting after assuming his USA Basketball job.
Jerry Colangelo reflecting on his conversation with David Stern and the two main demands he had for him before accepting the role: “I basically said, yea i’ll do it but I have a couple conditions…One, full autonomy in terms of the selection process…and two, I don’t want to hear about a budget.”
Jerry on why it was important to him to answer the call from USA Basketball: “I was unhappy with the way people were looking at us as Americans, as athletes and in particular our basketball players in Greece. It was a little shameful in my opinion.”
Jason Kidd on having to overcome his rocky relationship with Jerry Colangelo to come play for him, despite being traded by Colangelo during their time together in Phoenix. “When Jerry gave me a call and asked if I would participate, at first I thought he was joking. But he was serious and anytime Jerry calls to ask you to do something there is no ‘no’…He did trade me and I was bitter about the trade because I loved Phoenix but I knew Jerry and Coach K were trying to fix team USA and put the best team together, maybe not top 12 or 13 players but the best team and I was honored to be asked.”
