Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill will succeed the retiring Jerry Colangelo to become the managing director of Team USA after the Tokyo Olympics, announced USA Basketball on Saturday.

"It's just an incredible opportunity, also an incredible challenge. I had the good fortune of participating in international play – the Pan American Games, of course the Olympic team – and I have been a fan of Team USA going back to the 1984 Olympic team when I first started to fall in love with basketball. The more I thought about it, the more intrigued, excited and the more willing I was to roll up my sleeves and move forward with this awesome responsibility," said Hill.

Before Hill was drafted by the NBA's Detroit Pistons, he had already tasted success at Duke University. He led the team to win back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1991 and 1992, a feat no team had accomplished in Division I basketball in the previous 17 seasons.

After he graduated from Duke in 1994, Hill was drafted by the Pistons with the No. 3 pick. Hill experienced a lot during his 19-year career. He was first seen as another heir to Michael Jordan. He was voted an All-Star in his rookie season, named to the All-NBA First Team in 1997 and averaged a career-high 25.8 points in the 1999-2000 season after improving his jump shot.

In 2000, Hill sprained his left ankle right before the playoffs. That injury continued to haunt him for many years. He was traded to the Orlando Magic in the same year. In the following seven seasons, Hill only played 200 games for the team because of all the injuries he suffered, including a potentially fatal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection.

When Hill joined the Phoenix Suns in 2007, many assumed he would end his career very soon, but instead, it became a turning point for him. The Suns' medical staff helped him remain healthy, he found great teammates like Steve Nash and even developed reliable 3-point shooting (34.6 percent compared with 23.3 percent previously).

He became the team's third-best player and was responsible for defending Kobe Bryant during the 2010 NBA Western Conference Finals. Bryant was moving toward his fifth ring back then and Hill was already 37 years old.

Hill retired in the summer of 2013 and, five years later, was inducted into the Hall of Fame. After retirement, he worked as a college basketball analyst for Turner Sports for almost 10 years. Even though Duke contributed many great players to the NBA like Kyrie Irving, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson after Hill, he is still considered as the greatest basketball player in Duke history.

"Grant is a proven leader of consequence and character who will continue to help us achieve on our twin goals of winning international competitions and representing our country with honor. In making this announcement, I also want to emphasize how much everyone associated with USA Basketball appreciates Jerry Colangelo for everything he did for USA Basketball over the past 15 years," said Martin Dempsey, USA Basketball board of directors chair and retired army general.

Team USA will be counting on Hill to assemble the best players for them to chase more golds in the Olympics. That job won't be easy because his predecessor Colangelo has done a remarkable job of it.

The position was created for Colangelo in 2005, after Team USA suffered a humiliating failure at the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004. Colangelo brought in Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski to lead the team and managed to convince the best NBA players to join Team USA. The team would go on to win Olympic gold in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

When Team USA dominated the Summer Olympics in Barcelona in 1992, Hill was only 19 years old and was not recruited. Nonetheless, he and other college players including Bobby Hurley and Chris Webber scrimmaged with the Dream Team, which featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and some of the other greatest names in basketball history. The young bloods won 62-54 in the first scrimmage.

"We had a good moment. That experience – having a chance to practice with, learn from, spend time with arguably the greatest team ever assembled – it wasn't a formal event with a medal ceremony and the like, but it certainly was a pivotal moment for me and my development and my growth as a player," said Hill.