GAME

A fast-paced and reflective account of an extraordinary career in basketball.

There’s a certain melancholic feel that runs through Hill’s memoir, especially because basketball glory often comes with debilitating injury. “I have spent most of my life running, jumping, starting, and stopping,” writes the author, a star at Duke and in the NBA. “Now I do not jump. I cannot run….If I golf too much, I am laid up the following day….It saddens me knowing that I will never play [basketball] again. I wish I loved golf as much as I loved basketball.” However, that down note follows scores of memorable, sometimes iconic moments, foremost among them the 1992 NCAA playoff game against Kentucky in which Hill launched a long-distance pass to Christian Laettner, who buried the game-winning turnaround shot at the buzzer. Many experts consider the game to be the greatest in college basketball history. Growing up in Reston, Virginia, with a retired NFL player father and a mother active enough in political circles to count Hillary Clinton as a friend, Hill writes that he was suspected of growing up so privileged that he lacked hunger and was categorized as a “softie” in NBA training camp even though he was the third draft pick in his class. He puts the lie to that with an evident ethic of hard work and constant self-improvement, all of which he brought to his post–NBA career as a successful TV commentator, entrepreneur, and eventual team co-owner (Atlanta Hawks). Hill is also generous in praising both teammates and opponents, among them an Arizona Wildcat squad “whose entire roster was seemingly seven feet” and delivered a rare loss to Duke. He also has plenty of kind words for the often disliked Laettner. Hill writes affectingly of all the physical injuries he suffered while playing for four NBA teams, establishing a record of excellence in each. This is a perfect complement to Coach K, Ian O’Connor’s recent book on Hill’s college coach.

An illuminating exploration of a demanding game by one of its greatest players.