Co-owner of Over $6 Billion Sports Empire, Grant Hill Flies to North Carolina Only to Send a Message to 6900 Students…
the summer of 1990, Tommy Amaker, an assistant coach at Duke, got an unexpected phone call from Grant Hill, a freshman. Amaker was the point of contact for Hill’s recruitment, and so, when the young lad’s worries got too much, he called the coach to tell him he was considering an alternative plan. “Are you crazy?” Amaker yelled into the receiver, wondering how Hill couldn’t see his own brilliance. A teenage Grant Hill had deep-seated insecurity that he was simply not
That is partly what made him stand out, though. That atypical through-process is one reason he was one of the 13 men and women inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. Truth to be told, that’s just half the math. His mother, Janet, was an important part of the equation. She was a trustee emerita of Duke University from 2006–2021, but passed away in August 2022—before her son’s Naismith induction—but her “integrity and pursuance of excellence” were what motivated Hill in his journey. ‘Don’t fear failure,’ she used to tell the shy and introverted kid, who would pretend to play basketball with no baskets, no ball, and no teammates or opponents; Just all by himself.
So many voices are saying they want to do the right thing. Then why does it feel like so few are following through? Graduates, this is your challenge in your next chapter. Help us close this gap. That’s what James B. Duke wanted us to do with the school he created. He was motivated by his belief that education should be, in his words, practical as opposed to theoretical. Not just on paper. In practice. Not just dreaming. Doing. Don’t just list your values. Live them. And yes, my mom knew this one too. Number seven, on her set of principles reads: Don’t be a passenger in life.
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