There are few NBA players on opposing teams that I root for harder than Hill, 34 and in his 13th season. If you wonder why, I guess I'd start with the fact that lesser players would have called it quits several comebacks ago. But the injury-plagued Hill has persevered, and in 2006-07 he has started 60 of the 61 games he's appeared in. He's shooting 52% from the field and averaging 14.4 ppg. The 61 games played represent the most Hill has participated in since he played in 67 contests in the 2004-05 season. Since the 1999-2000 season (his last in Detroit), this year and '05 are the only two seasons in which Hill has reached the 60+ games played mark.
His history since leaving the Pistons and joining the Magic in a sign-and-trade -- the deal that brought the Pistons Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins -- has found Hill mostly on the sidelines, in street clothes. That is, if he was even able to manage that, considering the pain and surgeries on his legs and ankles that he's been through.
This has been Hill's uniform more often than not since 2000
Hill played in just four games in 2000-01, 14 the next season, and 29 the season after that. He didn't play at all in 2003-04. He was, long ago, going to pair up with Tracy McGrady and take the Magic to the promised land. Instead, McGrady is long gone and Hill is just trying to get through a season without too much pain. His magic hold the #8 seed in the East and will most likely get drummed out of the playoffs by the Pistons in no more than five games in the first round.
So there's the will to soldier on that I like. But I also recognize Hill for being the player that put the Pistons back on the NBA radar when he arrived in 1994. At the time, the Pistons were right smack in the middle of an arduous rebuilding era after the Bad Boys days of the late-1980s and early-1990s. Isiah Thomas had retired. Same with Bill Laimbeer. And Vinnie Johnson. Only Joe Dumars remained, and after a couple of lean years, Hill led the Pistons back to winning records and helped confirm that the franchise still had a pulse after all. Throughout it all, he carried himself here with class and grace.
There wasn't any playoff success, however, and that's when fans started to get restless with Grant Hill and the team he was the cornerstone of. Never could the Pistons get past the first round, and so when Hill opted to leave Detroit, his departure was treated mostly with a chorus of "good riddance" by the basketball faithful here.
It didn't help his legacy that the Pistons began winning soon after Wallace and Atkins -- and the other cast and crew that GM Dumars assembled -- arrived, and long playoff runs became the norm, pushing Hill further into the recesses of the fans' minds in Detroit.
It also didn't help to keep him in their minds when Hill was hurt far more than when he was healthy. Out of sight, out of mind.
This postseason promises to be the first time Hill will face the Pistons in the playoffs. His team won't win, but it won't be because of anything the 52% shooting, 14.4 ppg Hill is doing wrong.
He once again is part of a pedestrian team -- only this time he plays the role of mentor and grizzled veteran. Maybe playoff success just wasn't meant to be for #33.
They don't all get a crack at the ring. Even the good ones. Even the good people. And Grant Hill has been both since 1994.
1 comment:
grant hill is a parasite with an ankle injury, sign him if you wanna throw away millions. oh and your pistons are done. too many good teams in the east now. say hello to mediocrity.
Post a Comment