20 NBA Hall-of-Fame careers that were cut short by injury

NBA Hall-of-Fame career cut short: Grant Hill

Our first grouping of players will be those whose NBA careers were cut short by injury, but who still made the Hall of Fame because of their accomplishments playing college basketball. Grant Hill leads us off as one of the greatest players in college basketball history, a two-time NCAA champion with the Duke Blue Devils and the quarterback on college basketball’s most famous play:

Hill was drafted third overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. He not only won Rookie of the Year in his first year but was an instant All-Star, making the team as a first-year player and every season teams were selected through Year Seven of his career.

That’s when things took a nasty turn. In 2000 he suffered a nasty ankle injury that completely tore a hole in the prime of his career. After missing only 25 games in his first six seasons, Hill played in only 47 games over the next four years. He battled back to have one last All-Star season with the Orlando Magic in 2004-05.

Then the injuries began to pile up, from more ankle issues to shin, groin and knee injuries. Hill managed to overcome it all and establish himself as a valuable role player, and in total, he played 18 seasons despite the injuries. Yet the beginning of his career suggested Hill was going to be a top-30 player all-time, and instead he was simply a decent starter for the back half of his career.

Hill may have made the Hall of Fame on his NBA credentials alone, with seven All-Stars and five All-NBA selections, but he never won an MVP and has a lot of subpar seasons balancing out his strong start. If it weren’t for that ankle injury, Hill could have made a much larger mark on the league.