During the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was forced to take a break. A sprawling 850-acre private property in the Texas Hill Country that is home to more than 1,000 exotic animals. From the stealthy workaholics to adventurous vacationers, all were cooped up inside their homes. At the time, NBA legend George Hill decided to live at the Scenic Hills Ranch.
In August 2017, he purchased the massive plot of land here in Texas Hill Country, a 35-minute drive north of his family’s offseason home in San Antonio. Soon after the announcement that games would be put on hold on March 11, 2020, Hill, his wife, Samantha, and their 4-year-old son, Zayden, and 2-year-old daughter, Zoe, flew to Texas from Milwaukee. An exotic wildlife breeder in Corpus Christi, zebras run anywhere from $3,950 to $5,750, according to Lonesome Bull Ranch. The most expensive animals on Hill’s property are the female sable antelope and kudu, which cost $20,000 to $25,000 apiece. Hill’s 850-acre ranch is massive, dwarfing the land areas of the biggest zoos in the country: The Texas Zoo in Victoria, 130 miles southwest of Hill Country, is 106 acres, the Bronx Zoo is 265 acres and the Minnesota Zoo is 485 acres.
“I just think it’s cool for my kids to see,” Hill said to ESPN. I just choose other animals,” he said at the time. Hill said he purchased his animals from Texas-based licensed speciality breeders. “Most of [the animals have] been out there relaxing and reproducing,” Hill said. Texas residents, according to the state health and safety codes, need a permit for “dangerous wild animals,” such as lions, tigers, cougars, leopards and cheetahs, among others. I knew it was a matter of time before he found somewhere he could disappear to,” Miles said. Hill named one of the horses “Ropey” after the rope that was slung around the horn of his saddle “We used to ride through the neighbourhood,” he said. “He never had [a horse] or really seen people from the hood that had horses,” Hill said of his father. “So he wanted to step outside the box.”
Over time, the property has been bulldozed, sculpted and preened into a sprawling ranch. “And for them to have something different. Everyone has a dog or a cat. … He only keeps herbivores that can nibble on the grass, roots and shrubs. The animals have plenty of room to roam. In Texas, owning exotic animals such as zebras and kangaroos is legal. For Hill, a place like this had been a dream for years. When he played for the Indiana Pacers in the mid-2010s, he would often talk to friend and teammate C.J. Miles about the dream. “He was a country boy even back in his Indiana days. It all began with a horse named Ropey. Whecn Hill was a teenager in Indianapolis, his father purchased two pintos that were brothers. Hill’s father, who loved horses, had bought a modest plot of land near Wes Montgomery Park.
