Personal With Bill Rhoden: Grant & Calvin Hill

Personal With Bill Rhoden: Grant & Calvin Hill is a compelling television interview series on EPIX. The show features renowned sports journalist Bill Rhoden as he sits down with father and son duo, Calvin and Grant Hill. Calvin Hill is a former professional football player who has made his mark as an exemplary player in the National Football League. He even garnered a Super Bowl appearance and was selected four times to the Pro Bowl. His son, Grant Hill, followed in his father's footsteps in terms of a successful sports career, but in a different kind of court. Grant Hill is a retired professional basketball player who had an illustrious career in the National Basketball League with seven-pick honors and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The concept of Personal With Bill Rhoden: Grant & Calvin Hill seeks to transcend the regular sports talk show. Instead of focusing solely on the duo's individual professional journeys, Rhoden asks questions that examine the unique perspective they have to offer on success, generational change, personal growth, and discipline. The series is less about the score and more about the person behind it.

Calvin and Grant Hill's journeys are particularly insightful not just because of their respective career achievements, but also due to their personal experiences in the world of professional sports and beyond. They bring their full experience to the table - navigating race, generation transitions, parenthood, and the changing landscapes of their respective sports disciplines.

Bill Rhoden, a former New York Times sports writer and the author of 'Forty Million Dollar Slaves,' expertly steers the conversation. Rhoden's long experience in the world of sports journalism allows him to draw out enlightening and impactful anecdotes from his subjects. Whether it be tales of victories, defeat, camaraderie, or personal evolution, these anecdotes reach far beyond just sports fans and venture into lessons of life.

The interview is structured on the circle of life narrative method – from Calvin Hill’s formidable years as a young athlete, his rise to the NFL, his experience in handling fame and success, and ultimately how he evolves into a father, teaching and guiding Grant along his own path in the sports world which is pretty different from what he experienced in his time. The dialogue also sheds light on how Grant carried forward the legacy, nurtured through the years, onto the NBA court and beyond, into his post-retirement roles.

A noteworthy aspect of Personal With Bill Rhoden: Grant & Calvin Hill is its attention to the cultural and societal discussions. Calvin Hill discusses the civil rights movement and its effects on his career as a Black athlete in the NFL. He shares insights into the pressures and the expectations he faced. On the other hand, Grant Hill recounts his experiences in a changing NBA, the struggles with injuries, maintaining a consistently high performance level, and dealing with the spotlight.

The series also touches on the personal growth and development of both athletes. It delves into how they have evolved not just as athletes, but as individuals, as a father and a son, as men of society with responsibilities and roles to play.

A candid discussion on sports, society, and family, Personal With Bill Rhoden: Grant & Calvin Hill, is about a dialogue that chronicles professional sports through two different eras and reveals the personal experiences of an athlete turned father, and his son. It was released in 2014 by EPIX and has since then managed to provide insight into sports and the life of an athlete, unlike any other television series. This series doesn't just limit itself to the public figures of Calvin and Grant Hill. It demystifies them, uncovers them layer by layer, and caters to viewers the story of a father and a son who make their mark, negotiate life on and off their respective fields, yet remain deeply human and intensely relatable.