Grant Hill

When the All-NBA First Team honors came through for Grant Hill in 1997, they validated what anyone who watched him play already knew. There was no more complete player at his position in the Eastern Conference. In Game 2 of the first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks on April 27, 1997, Hill gathered on the drive and went up with the kind of physical authority that made opposing defenses recalibrate their entire game plan around him. The dunk was forceful and deliberate, a punctuation mark on a Detroit performance in a series that would ultimately slip away from the Pistons. Hill's ability to impose himself at both ends of the floor made him the engine of a franchise that had not yet assembled the championship infrastructure to match his individual talent. His performance on April 27, 1997 captured everything the young Detroit star was capable of, even in a postseason that ended too soon.