George Hill

Hill with the Spurs in 2010.
No. 3 – Indiana Pacers
Point Guard/Shooting Guard
Personal information
Born	(1986-05-04) May 4, 1986 (age 26) Indianapolis, Indiana
Nationality	American
High school	Broad Ripple
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
College	IUPUI
NBA Draft	2008 / Round: 1 / Pick: 26th overall
Selected by the San Antonio Spurs
Pro career	2008–present
Career history
2008–2011	San Antonio Spurs
2011–present	Indiana Pacers
Stats at NBA.com

George Jesse Hill, Jr. (born May 4, 1986) is an American professional basketball player with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). While playing for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) he received many honors, including Summit League 'Player of the Year' and was an 'Honorable Mention All-American' his junior season. He was selected 26th overall by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2008 NBA Draft.

Early life[link]

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Hill looked up to players like Michael Jordan while dreaming of one day playing in the NBA;^[1] when asked about his goal of becoming a first-round pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Hill commented: "It's my childhood dream".^[2] An only child,^[3] Hill attended Broad Ripple High School^[4] where he excelled as one of the top high school players in the state and formed part of the 'Magnificent Seven' from Indianapolis (Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Jr., Josh McRoberts, Rodney Carney, Eric Gordon, & Courtney Lee).^[5] Carney remembers playing against Hill : "This little kid comes in hitting all kinds of 3s, and I was like, 'Who is this little dude?...I knew he was going to be something when I saw this little skinny kid handling the ball and shooting like that."^[5] Hill played against every member of the 'Magnificent Seven' except for Gordon who was recovering from a broken wrist during their meetup.^[5] He faced off against Oden and Conley during his Junior year in High School, and remembers playing pickup-games against 10 year old Gordon when he was 13.^[5]

In high school, despite only having played soccer as a youth at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, Hill was asked to try out for the goalie position and finished earning all-state honors.^[6] In his senior year, Hill averaged a state-leading 36.2 points per game, the fifth-highest single-season-average in Indiana High School Athletic Association history.^[7]

College career[link]

Despite receiving scholarship offers from several big conference schools including Temple and Indiana, he chose to commit to IUPUI, wishing to stay with his ailing great-grandfather, Gilbert Edison.^[6] A few months after he verbally agreed to attend IUPUI, his great-grandfather died, never getting the opportunity to see Hill play basketball at the college level. Following the advice of his great-grandfather, who told him to always be 'a man of his word', he decided to pass on other offers and stay at IUPUI.^[2]

In his sophomore year, he led the IUPUI Jaguars to a tie for the best record in the conference.

Following an injury that forced him to become a red-shirt in his third year at IUPUI, Hill returned the next season and led the Jaguars to a school-record 26 wins and the Summit League Tournament finals before losing to eventual champion Oral Roberts University and thus failing to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Not counting Hill's injury-shortened 2006–07 season, the Jaguars were 61–30 during his three seasons at IUPUI.

NBA[link]

Draft[link]

Despite having one year of eligibility left, Hill, wishing to "test the waters", declared himself eligible for the 2008 NBA Draft. He left IUPUI as the fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,619 points, and became the second^{[Note 1]} IUPUI player to declare early.^[8] Although he had regularly attracted NBA scouts to his college games, he was not projected in most mock drafts largely due to remaining unannounced.^[9]

The hard part was putting my name in, knowing I have great teammates and great coaches and if it came down to me leaving, I wouldn't be able to play for the team or the coaches again...The easy thing was, if I put my name in and don't get drafted, I still have the option of coming back and playing for this great university.

—George Hill, ^[9]

In the following months, Hill worked out with several NBA teams. After an impressive run at the Orlando pre-draft rookie camp, Hill attracted attention and became a projected second-round selection. On draft night, the San Antonio Spurs surprised many by selecting George Hill with their 26th pick in the first round; many had San Antonio selecting Mario Chalmers of Kansas.^[10] Hill became the second first-round draft choice in The Summit League's history and the first player ever drafted from IUPUI.^[11] On September 23, 2008, the Spurs signed Hill to a standard rookie contract that guaranteed the first two years, and included a team option on the next two years.^[12]

Summer League 2008[link]

Las Vegas

On July 14, 2008, in his first summer league game as a Spur, George Hill scored 17 points and grabbed 8 rebounds while holding fellow draft pick O. J. Mayo to 5-of-17 shooting en route to a victory for the Spurs.^[13] Throughout the summer league Hill struggled with his shooting, making only 2 of 25 shots (8.0%), and one of six three-pointers (16.7%). Hill played in all but one of the four summer league games for the Spurs; he finished averaging 8.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 31.7 minutes per game.^[14][15]

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