NOAH GODWIN
Assistant Sports Editor
Last week we ran a column regarding Barry Bonds and our growing disgust with some aspects of professional athletics. I find it highly appropriate to follow that article with one that details some of the reasons almost all of us refuse to throw in the towel on the world of sports.
Athletes like Grant Hill of the Orlando Magic make it all but impossible for us to stop being fans, even in a time of steroids, basketball brawls, hockey lockouts and, maybe the most hurtful and embarrassing of all, Olympic cheaters.
Hill has been saying since his years at Duke University that his life’s motto is a quote by Thomas Edison: “I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
Most of us thought it was ludicrous for a player and person like Hill to even think about failure.
He won two national championships with the Blue Devils and became an instant legend when he completed one of the most astonishing alley-oop dunks against Kansas University in the 1991 NCAA Championship Game.
He went on to share NBA Rookie of the Year honors with Jason Kidd, and his charming personality and versatile play helped him receive more votes than any other player for the All-Star team, a first for a rookie.
Even more impressive was that Hill bested Michael Jordan in MJ’s first full year back from his baseball hiatus and repeated in earning the most votes for the All-Star team.
Hill firmly established himself as one of the most philanthropic and community-oriented players in the league, earning him the nickname “Mr. Nice Guy.” He furthered that reputation when he became the NBA’s poster boy for the Read to Achieve program.
He was the face of an entire organization, the Detroit Pistons, that had not found a marketable identity since the retirement of Isaiah Thomas.
He seemed like a lock for the Hall of Fame and a was destined to be a fixture on the All Star Team for most of the next decade.
Hill’s only flaw to date had been that he had not been able to lead the Pistons out of the first round of the playoffs. Determined to do so, he played through the pain of what he thought was a bruised ankle at the end of the 1999-2000 season.
The Detroit trainers had been wrong. His bruise was a broken bone on his left ankle that would have to be surgically repaired and rehabilitated for an estimated 12 months. Hill came back in only six.
The Orlando Magic expected Hill to return to his near-perfect form and agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the Pistons that brought Hill to Orlando at a price of $93 million for seven years.
The Pistons received reserve guard Chucky Atkins and a little-known center considered a poor man’s Bo Outlaw in Orlando named Ben Wallace.
Wallace has developed into one of the most notorious rebounders and defenders in the history of the NBA for the Pistons, and Hill has done little other than take up salary-cap space for the Magic.
Only four games after returning from ankle surgery, the inside bone on his left ankle forced him to undergo a second season-ending surgery.
A sprain to the same ankle the following season was followed by surgery to remove bone spurs in the ankle that ended his season again.
Hill remained determined to return and played 27 games in 2002-2003 before breaking his left heel. The surgery involved re-aligning his foot with his leg, and doctors urged him to give up basketball.
Hill dismissed the advice, and he proceeded to miss the following season when the fourth operation on his left foot produced a staph infection that made his body temperature soar and forced his body into shock, all of which forced a fifth surgery and another missed season.
In the previous four seasons, Hill played in only 47 games. After five surgeries, one near-death experience with a staph infection and countless hours of rehabilitation, he could have decided to end his bid to return to basketball and continued collecting his $93-million salary.
Remember, though, that this is a man who does not accept failure easily.
Hill’s comeback continues, and he has played in all but one of the Magic’s 37 games this season, averaging 19 points, four rebounds and four assists, numbers reminiscent of his glory days when he appeared destined to be one of the all-time greatest players.
But the injury bug may have found him again. The results of an MRI exam on his right wrist will be available today, and it’s possible that Hill will once again be faced with the choice of giving up basketball and simply collecting his paycheck or attempting to fight through yet another injury and attempt to help make his team better.
The Orlando Magic will not win an NBA Championship this season, or any season in the near future.
Hill has nothing left to prove with regard to his toughness, love for the game, integrity or commitment to his teammates. He doesn’t keep coming back for the money because he would get the money even if he didn’t play.
So why does Grant Hill keep coming back? I get the giddiest smile on my face in anticipation of trying to come up with as many answers to that question as possible.
He has a competitive spirit that can’t be bought, even for $93 million. He believes that his teammates are doing everything they can to help make the Magic a legitimate title contender, and he doesn’t want to let them down.
He believes that the Magic agreed to pay him that much money in good faith that he would be a great player, and he signed the contract believing that he could be and wants to hold up his end of the deal.
He believes that playing basketball, even with a broken foot and injured wrist, is more fun than not playing.
Here’s hoping Hill’s wrist injury isn’t too serious. But either way, I’m sure Hill will keep erasing the stories of steroids, brawls, lockouts and Olympic cheaters and reminding us all why we started loving these games in the first place.
01-20-2005
