Hill cleared for another try ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=may_peter&id=1890708

For three years, it was a ridiculous way to coach basketball. On one side of the paper, the game plan was prepared with the heading "With Grant." On the other side, it was prepared with the heading "Without Grant."

Grant Hill has only played 47 games for the Magic since coming to Orlando in 2000.
Unfortunately for Doc Rivers, the Orlando Magic coach at the time, the "Without Grant" side always seemed to prevail. He had Grant Hill for all of 47 games over three years, and a usually limited, hurting Grant Hill at that.

Nonetheless, said Rivers, "I saw enough to know how good we could have been if we had him all the time."

Rivers won"t get that chance; he's in Boston with his own new set of concerns (Raef LaFrentz, Gary Payton, Ricky Davis). Rivers' replacement, Johnny Davis, is preparing his game plan for 2004-05 and there's only side of the paper for him: "With Grant." That almost constitutes a news bulletin.

This may yet to turn out to be another shattering disappointment for the classy Hill, who, due to ongoing woes in his left ankle and foot, has not graced an NBA court since Jan. 16, 2003. Either that, or it's going to be one of the greatest comeback stories ever, right up there with John Travolta and the Simon and Garfunkel reunion tour.

Hill has been cleared for takeoff. New Magic GM John Weisbrod says he sees signs that this year will, indeed, be different. Even Hill himself is looking forward to playing without pain. Or fear of re-injury. As he told Magic broadcasters in a recent interview, "if I didn"t believe 100 percent that I would be able to come back healthy and beat this injury, then I wouldn't have had the surgery or wouldn't have put myself through this. I am excited about being healthy. I am excited about this team and upcoming season. I like the fact that people kind of count me out, and kind of count the team out."

Leaving aside the issue of counting out the Magic -- and they might be better than you think -- it is human nature to think something bad is going to happen to Hill. Ever since he signed with Orlando in the summer of 2000, it has been Injury Central for the former Dookie.

His first year in Orlando saw him play a grand total of four games. He had season-ending surgery on Jan. 13. His next season saw him play 14 games for the Magic. He had season-ending surgery on Dec. 19. Same foot. Same problem. Same result. You saw more of Hill on crutches than you did in a Magic uniform.

Year Three was almost Gehrig-esque by comparison -- he played 29 games. But he was placed on the IL on Jan. 18 and had a real doozy of an operation in March 2003. His left foot, which has seen more work than the Big Dig in Boston, was realigned and his left heel was reshaped. He spent all of 2003-04 rehabbing with one more comeback in mind.

Who knew what would happen? Certainly not Hill. And seeing the Magic last year, it made you wonder why he'd want to come back. While Hill worked in the pool and did his therapy, the Magic lost 19 straight games. Rivers was fired. GM John Gabriel, who made the moves necessary to get Hill to Orlando, was fired. Tracy McGrady was traded. The team won 21 games and Weisbrod took over with a blowtorch.

Hill may remember Andrew DeClercq and Pat Garrity among his teammates. He knows Davis. Beyond that, it's a whole new team in which he, for once, won't be seen as some sort of quixotic hero.

"This time, we endeavored to build the team without him," Weisbrod said. "We just got burned so many times by making him one of the focal points. The way we looked at it is that if he was healthy, that would be icing on the cake. And the way he looks now, we're excited."

Hill has been doing all the obligatory stuff in the gym. Weisbrod saw Hill play at Duke last month and came away satisfied that this year was going to be different. The GM saw Hill go through a tough workout, fullcourt, and there was no need afterwards for IV's, saline solutions or stretchers.

"He definitely believes he's back," Weisbrod said. "I can tell by the gleam in his eye."

Anyone with a rooting interest in the game is rooting hard for Hill to make it back. Rivers said, "he deserves it as much as anyone in sports." Hill is the personification of the NBA good guy, an accomplished player with an accomplished personality. Think Shane Battier, only with more talent.

And boy, was there ever a ton of talent. It's easy now to look back on the Hill signing and do some Monday morning finger pointing, especially since the Magic parted ways with Ben Wallace (and Chucky Atkins) in the deal. But Hill, not McGrady, was The Catch of the Free Agent Class of 2000, or at least he was once Tim Duncan decided to stay in San Antonio.

This was, at the time, probably the most versatile small forward in the game at the tender age of 27. In his last season in Detroit, Hill averaged 25.8 points a game. He shot 49 percent from the field, which qualifies for Springfield these days. He also averaged 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists. In years prior, he had averaged fewer points, but never less than 19.9, and more rebounds and assists.

No, he wasn"t ever going to be The Man. He was more like Scottie Pippen or Kevin McHale in that regard. But McGrady would have been happy to be the man and a McGrady-Hill combo was downright terrifying -- except that it never really came about. And now it never will.

Hill still has some years left; he turns 32 on Oct. 5. But while his foot has been through the ringer, the rest of his body has not. From a cardiovascular standpoint, he's probably 28.

A healthy, contributing Hill playing alongside Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Hedo Turkoglu and promising rookie Dwight Howard makes the Magic a very interesting proposition this season. They even have some size, sort of, in former Celtic Tony Battie along with DeClercq, the occasionally wacky Kelvin Cato and the rook Howard.

"I don't really know a lot of the guys; I know a few of them from the past, but I think on paper we have a chance to be very exciting," Hill said.

But the mere fact that we're mentioning the words "Hill" and "playing" in the same sentence without setting off the computer's anti-virus software should be sufficient. Put those two words into a Google search field and you'll end up at the Duke University Hospital home page.

Going forward, it should be a different story. We know this much -- Hill has run out of surgeries. He's had four, three of them coming in successive years (2001-03). Hopefully, for him and us, he hasn't run out of chances or comebacks. This one really does deserve a happy ending.

 

yes it would. other than that Scottie Pippen crap I liked the article...