Ahead of the NBA Finals, Grant Hill, Naismith Hall of Famer and minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks, talks about the identities of the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks and who has the advantage.
SUMMER JUANA, PRESIDENT:
In the NBA Finals, the beasts of the Eastern Conference meet the best teams of the Western Conference, although in the East, the Boston Celtics have dominated all year. And in the West, the Dallas Mavericks weren’t even considered a contender to make the playoffs but had a hot streak that took them from the fifth seed all the way to the Finals.
Grant Hill is a man who knows something about tempers. He’s a basketball Hall of Famer who became a broadcaster for TNT and NBA TV, and he joins us now from Boston, where Game 1 kicks off tonight. Hello. Welcome to the program.
GRANT HILL: Hey. Thank you for helping me.
SUMMER: Okay. Celtics – they’ve just been dominant all year, their duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown has been to the NBA Finals before. Tell us what’s different this year.
HILL: Oh. Well, they’ve been great all season. And really, both of them have been great over the last couple of seasons in the regular season and of course, they’ve gone really far and deep into the playoffs. But this year is more special. I think some of the moves that Brad Stevens, the Celtics general manager, made this offseason, bringing in Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, have been really good, really solid.
And they were the best team in the regular season. They made it through the regular season. And they made the playoffs and Porzingis was obviously hurt in the first round. You know, they don’t need him for the rest of the playoffs or at least the next two rounds, but I believe they’re going to need him here in this series to have a chance at winning the championship .
SUMMER: Okay, it’s Boston. But what is the big plot in Dallas? I mean, I know that this team has two star guards who really seem to come together and find ways to work well together.
HILL: You know, what happened in Dallas was really quite extraordinary. I mean, a year ago they made a trade for Kyrie Irving, and they kind of blew up at the end of the season. The Mavericks did not make the playoffs. And they traveled throughout the regular season, but they made the trade at the trade deadline. They brought Gafford in. They brought in PJ Washington. And they just heat up at the right time.
Their defense over the final 20 games of the season was the most effective in the NBA during that span. They won 16 of 20 games to end the season and have almost gained confidence, understanding what it takes on both ends to succeed. And they were able to maintain that momentum and then overcome that hot streak to reach the Finals. Of course, having Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, two of the best defenders, one-on-one scorers in the league, has helped. But with the way this team has defended as a team, it’s really just a matter of getting hot at the right time of the season and being able to shine.
SUMMER: So, I mean, if you just look at this purely on paper, one might think that the Celtics are the better team, but in your mind, how do they stack up against the Mavs?
HILL: You know, they played them twice in the regular season this year and blew them. And it’s a little bit difficult. I mean, that game was in January. One is in March. I think what Boston has is they have length and girth size. They are an elite defensive team. They have the ability to shoot a high volume of three-pointers and make those three-pointers at a very effective clip. But then they also get a lot of points for the paint. And, you know, Dallas has been excellent at limiting the number of points on the field this postseason, keeping teams out of the paint, making them shoot three-pointers. So, you know, Luka did it, but Boston did it against Dallas in the regular season.
Now, Dallas is no longer the team they were in the regular season. They are a different team. They are a better team. So in theory, yes, it could be the Celtics because they have home-court advantage, because they were the No. 1 team all season and entering the postseason. This will not be an easy series at all. And I think we’re going to have an interesting series and a series that could last six or seven games to determine who the champion is in the end.
SUMMER: And I’ll just note that there are two Celtics athletes who will end up in the Finals. They will rest whenever they can before joining Team USA for the Olympics. And you also happen to be the executive director of the US Men’s Team and a former gold medalist. Are these guys ready to take on the world when the tournament starts at the end of July?
HILL: Yes. Yes. No, we are excited about the Olympics in Paris. And we made a game plan and strategy. And certainly Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum, who are playing for the Boston Celtics, will be on the squad this summer. So – but no, we have a great team. We have a team with extensive experience in FIBA international basketball competition. And the challenge for us will be, in a very short period of time, to come together as a team, learn the style of play, learn from each other and be at our best when we go to Paris for the Olympics festival.
SUMMER: Yes. I know a lot of us are looking forward to it. Look. I mean, Grant, I don’t have to tell you this, but Olympic basketball is no longer guaranteed gold for American men. It’s not like you can assemble any dream team and watch them travel across the rest of the world. I’m just curious. Can you give us a hint about your guiding principles when arranging this year’s lineup?
HILL: Oh, I’m so glad you said that. I mean, sometimes I think, because we’ve been so successful and sometimes dominant internationally, we’re arrogant about, oh, we’re going to roll the ball out there and achieve success. But that’s a different game. It’s a different style. It is done differently. We have incredible talent. I think overall, we have the most talent. Are personalities and playing styles compatible? You know, it’s not necessarily the best players, it’s the best team. And it’s like a puzzle. And we’ll see later this summer whether we were right or wrong. And I hope we will win the gold medal.
SUMMER: Last thing before I let you go. I want to move on to another topic that is in the news. There’s this new FX series dramatizing the moment the LA Clippers owner was forced to sell the team after his racist comments surfaced. And I know that you spent your final NBA season with the Clippers before the scandal broke. And I just wanted to know if you’ve seen this movie and if it resonates with what you experienced on the team.
HILL: Yes, I’ve heard of that series – I haven’t seen it. I look forward to seeing it. It was a difficult time for that team and for the players and coaches who went through it. During the postseason, as things came out and Donald Sterling and things about what he said were revealed, I really thought that Adam Silver, as the new commissioner in his first year , demonstrated his leadership abilities and essentially kicked him out of the NBA. And I think he earned a lot of respect for doing that.
SUMMER: It’s Grant Hill from “NBA Inside Stuff” and TNT’s basketball news. And of course, he is a 19-season NBA veteran. Grant Hill, thank you so much.
HILL: Okay. Thank you very much.
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