George Hill

On Draft night, the San Antonio Spurs surprised many by selecting Hill with their 26th pick in the first round; many expected the Spurs to select Mario Chalmers of Kansas.

Hill became the second first-round Draft choice in The Summit League's history and the first player ever drafted from IUPUI.

George Jesse Hill Jr. (born May 4, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who last played for 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 left IUPUI as the fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,619 points, and became the second IUPUI player to declare early after Carlos Knox in 1997 (he later withdrew his name).

Although he had regularly attracted NBA scouts to his college games, Hill was not projected in most mock drafts largely due to remaining unannounced.

"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."

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.

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

Hill was selected 26th overall by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2008 NBA Draft and would spend three seasons with the team before being traded to the Indiana Pacers in June 2011.

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Hill looked up to players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird while dreaming of one day playing in the NBA; when asked about his goal of becoming a first-round pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Hill commented: "It's my childhood dream".

He played basketball at St. Richard's Episcopal School.

An only child, Hill attended Broad Ripple High School where he excelled as one of the top high school players in the state and was one of the "Magnificent Seven" from Indianapolis (with Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr.., Josh McRoberts, Rodney Carney, Eric Gordon, and Courtney Lee).

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."

Hill played against every member of the Magnificent Seven except Gordon, who was recovering from a broken wrist during their meetup.

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.

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.

Despite 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.

A few months after he agreed to attend IUPUI, his great-grandfather died, never getting the opportunity to see Hill play basketball at the college level.

Following his great-grandfather's advice to always be a man of his word, Hill decided to pass on other offers and stay at IUPUI.

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 redshirt 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.

Despite having one year of eligibility left, Hill, wishing to "test the waters", declared himself eligible for the 2008 NBA Draft.

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.

On July 14, 2008, in his first summer league game as a Spur, 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.

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.

At the Utah Revue, Hill led his team by averaging 12.9 points over four games; however he continued to struggle offensively with his shooting, only making 21.4% of his three-point field goals.

In the first of the four games, Hill led all scorers with 21 points and helped the Spurs defeat the Utah Jazz, 82–57.

He followed up with a quiet offensive performance, 6 points, in a win against the NBDL Ambassadors, before scoring 18 points in a loss versus the Gerald Green-led Mavericks.

In the final game of the Revue, Hill once again struggled with his shooting (1–7) but managed to make key plays with the game on the line.

Hill made two clutch free throws with 6.9 seconds left and then forced a turnover on the defensive end to beat the previously undefeated Atlanta Hawks.

In 2008, Hill joined the San Antonio Spurs and made his NBA debut on November 4 against the Dallas Mavericks in the third game of the season.

He spent five seasons in Indiana and was dealt to the Utah Jazz in July 2016.

Hill signed with the Sacramento Kings as a free agent in July 2017, but was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in February 2018.

With the Cavaliers, he made his first trip to the NBA Finals.

In December 2018, Hill was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.

In November 2020, he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but was dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers in March 2021.

Hill returned to the Bucks as a free agent in August of the same year before returning to the Pacers via a four-team trade.