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NBC Sports
24-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
GRANT HILL TO JOIN NBC SPORTS' NBA COVERAGE AS GAME ANALYST
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and Seven-Time NBA All-Star Begins Role This Fall when the NBA Returns to NBC and Debuts on Peacock STAMFORD, Conn. – June 24, 2025 – Grant Hill, a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, will join NBC Sports' NBA coverage as a game analyst when the NBA returns to NBC and debuts on Peacock this fall. Hill's illustrious 18-season NBA career includes countless accomplishments and accolades: a seven-time NBA All-Star, including four consecutive appearances from 1995-1998; five-time All-NBA selection, including First Team in 1997; NBA Co-Rookie of the Year in 1995; a gold medalist with Team USA at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; three-time NBA Sportsmanship Award winner; and culminated his professional career with enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. Throughout his career, Hill spent time with the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Clippers. Since retiring in 2013, Hill has made a successful transition to NBA and college basketball broadcasting, having called the past 10 Final Fours as an analyst for TNT Sports and CBS Sports' joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as well as high-profile regular season NBA games and playoff series. His versatility as a broadcaster extends to the studio, where he has spent time as a host and analyst on programs such as NBA TV's GameTime and NBA Inside Stuff. Hill will continue his role at TNT Sports, serving as a college basketball analyst for TNT Sports and CBS Sports' joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as well as TNT's coverage of Big East and Big 12 basketball. 'I'm incredibly excited to join NBC Sports as part of their NBA coverage. The NBA has been such a meaningful part of my life, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue sharing the game I love with fans across the country,' said Hill. 'To be part of NBC's return to the NBA — a network with such a rich basketball legacy — and its debut on Peacock is truly an honor. I can't wait to get started this fall.' Hill is fully entrenched within the game of basketball. In addition to his playing and broadcasting careers, he's currently USA Basketball's managing director of the U.S. Men's National Team, succeeding Jerry Colangelo in the position and helping Team USA earn a gold medal victory at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Hill is a part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks and co-owner of MLS' Orlando City SC and NWSL's Orlando Pride, and is also part of the Baltimore Orioles' ownership group. 'With an unparalleled basketball resume which includes Coach K calling him the best player to ever suit up for Duke, Grant will be a tremendous asset to our coverage,' said Sam Flood, Executive Producer, NBC Sports. 'He's an accomplished broadcaster whose basketball IQ, insight, and intellect will continue to resonate with NBA fans across the country.' The third overall pick by the Pistons in 1994, Hill had a storied college career at Duke, winning back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992 and becoming only the eighth player in Duke history to have his jersey number retired. He was an integral part of one of the most famous plays in college basketball history in the 1992 East Regional Final, heaving the inbounds pass three-quarters of the length of the court to his teammate, Christian Laettner, who hit a game-winning jump shot as time expired to send the Blue Devils to the Final Four. During Hill's time as a Blue Devil, he was named ACC Player of the Year in 1994 and was a two-time All-American. Hill was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014, Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team in 2002. Click here for more on Grant Hill. *** In July 2024, NBCUniversal and the NBA announced an 11-year agreement to present NBA and WNBA regular-season and playoff basketball games across numerous platforms beginning with the 2025-26 season. Peacock will livestream exclusive national Monday night games while NBC/Peacock will present national coverage of regional doubleheaders on Tuesday nights. NBC Sports will launch Sunday Night Basketball in 2026 across NBC and Peacock, providing NBA fans with three consecutive nights of national coverage across NBCUniversal platforms during the second half of the regular season. For more information on the agreement, click here. NBC Sports has already announced that Jamal Crawford and Reggie Miller will serve as game analysts, Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter as studio analysts, Maria Taylor as studio host, and Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle as play-by-play voices. Michael Jordan has been announced as a special contributor. Emmy Award-winning producer Frank DiGraci is NBC Sports' NBA coordinating producer. In a nod to its original era of NBA coverage from 1990-2002, NBC Sports is also bringing back Roundball Rock, one of the most iconic and beloved theme songs in sports history, and will use an AI-generated voice of the late Jim Fagan, a longtime NBC Sports narrator whose voice was synonymous with its NBA coverage and promotion. Additional information about NBC Sports' 2025-26 NBA coverage will be announced soon. ABOUT NBC SPORTS NBC Sports connects sports fans to the moments that matter most with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. As the sports division of NBCUniversal, NBC Sports produces, programs, and promotes premier content across numerous linear and digital platforms, including NBC and Peacock. NBC Sports possesses an unparalleled collection of media rights agreements, partnering and presenting many of the most prestigious sports properties in the world: the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the NFL, NBA, WNBA, Big Ten Conference, Big East Conference, Notre Dame, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, USGA, PGA of America, The R&A, Churchill Downs, Premier League, and many more. It is renowned for making big events bigger and has produced some of the most-watched sporting events in U.S. media history, including Olympic Games, Super Bowls, and Sunday Night Football, primetime television's No. 1 show for 14 consecutive years. --NBC SPORTS--
New York Times
24-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Luka Dončić trade is ‘business of basketball' — and Jason Kidd can relate
On the day he was introduced as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, Luka Dončić sounded like someone still stinging from a breakup. 'It was hard moments for me,' Dončić said on Feb. 4, two days after the trade between the Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks became official. '(Dallas) was home.' Dončić said he saw himself spending his entire career with the Mavericks, a team he led to the NBA Finals only eight months earlier. The business of basketball had left one of the NBA's brightest young stars shellshocked. Advertisement It was a feeling Jason Kidd — Dončić's coach in Dallas — knew well. On Dec. 26, 1996, the Mavericks traded Kidd, then an All-Star point guard on the rise, to the Phoenix Suns for Michael Finley, Sam Cassell and A.C. Green. 'It shocks you because you don't know about that side of the business,' Kidd said. 'But you have to grow up fast. It is a business.' Kidd was in his third year with the Mavericks when the trade happened. At 23, he already had an NBA Co-Rookie of the Year award and an All-Star appearance on his résumé. The Mavericks chose Kidd with the No. 2 selection in the 1994 NBA Draft. He was supposed to lead the organization back to prominence alongside the two other 'Js,' Jamal Mashburn and Jim Jackson. Instead, Kidd was traded 10 months after serving as one of the Western Conference's All-Star starters in San Antonio. As talented as Kidd was at the time of his trade, Dončić was significantly more accomplished when Dallas dealt him. The 25-year-old Slovenian has been named an All-Star five times and has earned five All-NBA First Team selections in his first six years. More crucially, Dončić proved he could carry his team to deep playoff runs. In 2022, he torched Phoenix with 35 points in Dallas' Game 7 road win in the Western Conference semifinals. Last spring, Dončić averaged 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.1 assists in postseason play and led Dallas' march to the NBA Finals. No matter how this season ended, Dončić said he planned to sign a supermax contract with the Mavericks in July, which would have paid him $346 million over five years. But as The Athletic previously reported, the Mavericks weren't going to offer him that deal. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison cited cultural concerns when asked about the decision to part ways. Dončić wasn't always diligent about his diet or conditioning, and like many stars, he had a lot of say over when his team practiced. In Dončić's first three games with the Lakers, he averaged 14.7 points on 35.6 percent shooting and four turnovers. In Saturday's game against the Denver Nuggets, he looked more like his dominant self, notching 32 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in just 31 minutes. "Hard. Different. … I'm happy for the new journey." —Luka Doncic tells @saltersl what the last few weeks have been like after his best game with the Lakers. — ESPN (@espn) February 23, 2025 Post-trade in 1996, Kidd went on to become one of the most accomplished point guards in NBA history. He made the All-NBA First Team for the first time as a 25-year-old, the same age Dončić is now. He guided the New Jersey Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003, and he later won a ring in 2011 in his second stint with the Mavericks. Advertisement 'You believe you are going to be with the franchise forever,' Kidd said. 'But the business of basketball sometimes gets in the way. Teams change. I've been involved in quite a few sales of the team. Any time there is a sale, there could be change. It just happens.' The Dončić trade likely wouldn't have happened if Mark Cuban hadn't sold his majority stake in the Mavericks to the Adelson family in December 2023. Before Dončić's third season, Cuban once joked that if he was forced to pick between Dončić staying in Dallas and keeping his marriage intact, he would choose the former over the latter. Then, earlier this month, Cuban likened the Dončić-for-Anthony-Davis-swap to Bill Gates trading for an older, inferior operating system in an event with the former Microsoft CEO. Dončić has made it clear he intended to be in Dallas long-term, and his actions backed it up. He was close to closing on an expensive home before the deal went through. 'Loyalty is a big word for me, and I was trying to stay by that,' Dončić said on Feb. 4. 'But this for me is a fresh start.' A fresh start, just like it was for Kidd nearly three decades earlier. 'You see yourself playing for an organization for a long time,' Kidd said, 'until you get called back to the locker room and told that you've been traded to Phoenix.' (Photo of Dereck Lively II, Jason Kidd and Luka Dončić: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
