Grant Hill says he was robbed. On a recent appearance on Cousins with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, Hill said Jason Kidd knows it, too, and argued that the two guards were tied together from the start.
“J-Kidd knows that, I got robbed,” Hill said. “That’s my guy, we came in together.”
Hill’s complaint goes back to 1995, when he and Kidd shared the NBA Rookie of the Year award, one of only three split honors in league history. Hill said he still remembers the coincidence that followed them from high school to the pros, including a Nike camp where he said they were teammates and Kidd “did not pass me the ball one time.”
He also pointed to the draft, noting that Kidd went one spot ahead of him before the two ended up sharing the award. “I’m still a little bitter about that,” Hill said, though he added, “if I got to share it with somebody, it might as well be him.”
The numbers give Hill’s case some weight. In his rookie season with the Detroit Pistons, he averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.8 steals, shooting 47.7 percent from the field, 14.8 percent from 3-point range and 73.2 percent from the free-throw line. Kidd, in his first year with the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 11.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting 38.5 percent from the field, 27.2 percent from the 3-point line and 69.8 percent from the free-throw line.
The split award has been rare. The NBA has had only three instances in which Rookie of the Year was shared, with the most recent coming in 2000, when Elton Brand and Steve Francis split the honor. Hill did not hide his position: “Go back and look at the stats, that’s all I’m gonna say.”
For Hill, the grievance is part joke and part memory of how close his first year came to a clean sweep. For the league, it remains one of the few times the rookie race ended without a single winner.
