Grant Hill worried about Mike Krzyzewski's reaction to new book

On June 7, former Duke All-American and NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill released his autobiography titled ‘Game‘. The memoir highlights Hill’s success as a two-time NCAA champion and five-time NBA All-Star as well as his years dealing with multiple career-altering injuries.

In an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Hill said he was concerned about the reaction to his book. It wasn’t about the reaction of the readers, though. It was about the reaction of his former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) that had him most worried.

“I don’t know. That’s a good question,” said Hill when asked who would be most upset by the book. “I felt like like I had to be authentic, honest, and transparent. My junior year was not smooth sailing. I talk about some of my issues, my angst and some of my frustrations with Coach K.”

As one of the most accomplished players in Krzyzewski’s tenure, it was hard to imagine a rift like that between Hill and his head coach. A lot of what he spoke on stemmed from his junior year where he was only able to play in 26 games for the Blue Devils due to injury.

“A lot of it had to do with me being hurt and not being able to play,” he said. “Coach (Krzyzewski) may not know all of this or that I was thinking all of this. It was still going through my mind so I was very, very nervous about that.”

Hill averaged 14.9 points and six rebounds during his four years as a Blue Devil. He was a part of two NCAA All-Tournament teams and helped Duke win back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992. Even with all that success, he felt it was vital to be fully transparent when discussing that time in his life.

“It was important to put that all out there,” said Hill. “As great as those years were at Duke, it’s not all rainbows and lollipops as my wife says. There were moments of tension. To share that was something I was nervous about how Coach K would receive that.”

With Krzyzewski a few months into his retirement, he’ll have plenty of time to read Hill’s new book and decide what he thinks about it for himself.