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Grant Hill Says Pistons, Magic Mismanaged Ankle Injury

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by TheGreat, Apr 27, 2011.

  1. TheGreat

    TheGreat Member

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    His final season in Detroit, Grant Hill had the league’s third-highest scoring average (25.8), behind Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson. At age 27, it’s not an exaggeration to say Hill was LeBron James, the NBA’s most complete player.

    “At the time I got hurt, I felt like the game was becoming very easy for me,” Hill said. “I was entering my prime. There was an understanding of the game. I felt the next four or five years would be an opportunity and a time to really make my mark and really go for it.”

    Things fell apart for Hill as he approached free agency in 2000. He broke his ankle in the Miami playoff series. The injury dogged him the next four years.

    “I don’t think anybody really knows I started to have ankle problems at the end of the 1999-2000 season, probably mid-March,” Hill said. “I was still able to go out and play. I still played well, but I was getting a lot of treatment. It was certainly bothering me. As we got closer to the end of the season, my ankle was really getting worse. I was missing practice. To the point where we had a nationally televised game against Philadelphia and I just pulled myself. My ankle was just killing me. We get back, we get an MRI. They say it’s a bone bruise.”

    Hill rested the final three games of the regular season and returned to the lineup for the Miami playoff series.

    “It’s still bothering me,” Hill said. “I pull myself in the third quarter. They put me on some heavy medication and we had a long break between Game 1 and Game 2. While I was on this medication I felt great. Obviously it was masking the pain. Went out and played in Game 2 and I felt a pop in the second quarter, continued on in the third quarter and couldn’t go on. When we got back, we found out it was broken.

    “I (had been) told everything was fine. I even found out that certain team doctors were questioning whether I was really hurt, thinking I was soft or whatever. This was after I had pulled myself from Game 2 against theHeat. At that time, when I found out I had broken my ankle, as crazy as this sounds, I was relieved. I finally had some confirmation, I finally had proof that I’m really not making it up.”

    Hill’s pursuit of victories led him to team up with Tracy McGrady in Orlando. Hill had surgery on his ankle in May. He visited Orlando in July while still needing the help of crutches. He signed a contract in August. By Labor Day, the Magic had him participating in pickup games.

    “They had me out there playing,” Hill said. “I might play once a week. My ankle was hurting. I wasn’t really supposed to be out there. I wasn’t supposed to be playing. I’d never really been hurt before so I didn’t know what rehab really was. I’m trying to play. I’m icing all the time. I’m getting through the month, probably playing pickup three or four times in the whole month. We get to training camp, I might have practiced once or twice during camp. I stumble through preseason playing three or four games.”

    http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/grant-hill-says-detroit-orlando-mismanaged-injuries-042711
     
  2. Shaud

    Shaud Member

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    Trainers and doctors are never wrong. This can't be true Mr. Hill.
     
  3. Octavianus

    Octavianus Member

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    2 players who cause of injuries, never lived up to the greatness that should of been, Penny and G Hill.

    Used to love watching them back in the days.
     
  4. T-mac&Yao=RING

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    Grant Hill was my favorite player I loved watching him play his game was so beautiful. It hurt me like hell when he left Detroit, but I knew it was for the best.

    I never thought in a million years his ankle would kill his chance at being a hall of famer. Its so sad to see it happen to such a nice guy like Hill.

    He should have sat out that Heat series.
     
    #4 T-mac&Yao=RING, Apr 27, 2011
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2011
  5. Liberon

    Liberon Rookie

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    Have you guys worn Hill's Filas? I did back in the early to mid-90s and I tell you the mid top support is like a shroud of fakeness. It literally does nothing for ankle support.
     
  6. csnerd84

    csnerd84 Member

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    I think we can also add B. Roy and may be to certain extent T-Mac to the list.
     
  7. davidxhz

    davidxhz Member

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    if it is true, i think the NBA should began teaching thoes team doctors how to handle different kind of injuries.

    it's unbelievable, the only thing that team doctors are asked to do is to treat injuries and some of them can not do it..... maybe our team doctors should all go to pheonix to learn how to treat injuries.
     
  8. adboy

    adboy Member

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    or we can pay them a little more and bring them here instead of the incompetent doctors we have here
     
  9. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    Mismanagement reminds me of how the Rockets treated McGrady's injury, insisting his knee was okay to play and McGrady having to pull himself out. Teams are so anxious to win they end up destroying their most valuable assets.
     
  10. RV6

    RV6 Member

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    “The next day the doctor who performed (my) surgery picks the paper up and saw that I played like 30 minutes and he was irate,” Hill said. “I wasn’t supposed to be on the court doing basketball-related activity until December. So somewhere along the line, the ball was dropped. And certainly I didn’t know that until the doctor informed me of that. Apparently he had forwarded all the information down there to Orlando. I was told to follow the instructions. I played in another game in Miami the next night and they shut me down to do rehab for five or six weeks. By then it was too late. What should’ve been a six- or seven-month recovery before you get on the court to play, I was on the court in three or four months.

    “I don’t think it was a conspiracy that, ‘Hey, we gotta get him out there.’ Someone just didn’t read the protocol. Which is crazy. You invest $92 million in somebody ... I just kept thinking, ‘I can’t believe how poorly mismanaged this has been



    And this is exactly why it's not as simple as blaming the doctors.....


    Also, players themselves need to oversee more of their rehab and diagnosis. Hill has to take some blame, even if just a little, for this. Players have the money to get second and third opinions, to see out better or more open minded doctors. They can pick up the phone, call the doc, and ask, "how long should i be out there?" They shouldn't let teams deal with everything.
     
  11. Fyreball

    Fyreball Member

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    It's not really fair for Hill to point ALL of the blame on the Magic doctors and management. He has to take a certain responsibility for his own health, and read up on the proper way to rehabilitate himself. I understand that players face a lot of pressure to live up to the giant deals they sign, but he could have easily told Orlando that he needed to until December to rest the ankle. If Magic management THEN force him to go out onto the court anyways, he has a case against them. Until then though, he has to take at least some of the blame for this.
     
  12. gah

    gah Member

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    And I thought Hill was the one who decided to play against recommendations, when he played that series against Miami the media gave it an heroic connotation, it turned out to be martyrdom instead. It is such a shame because he really was the best all around player at the time, not to mention a fan favorite.

    It's more surprising because he is practically saying he was fooled. And I thought Hill was the one who decided to play against recommendations, when he played that series against Miami the media gave it an heroic connotation, it turned out to be martyrdom instead. It is such a shame because he really was the best all around player at the time, not to mention a fan favorite.
     
  13. roslolian

    roslolian Member

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    You only get 2nd and 3rd opinions prior to a surgery, I've never heard of a patient agreeing to a surgery, and then not trusting the doctor who did the surgery on the recovery method and asking other doctors about it.

    I'm not sure why you think Grant Hill has any fault in this. Unless you think he's not supposed to trust anybody and have the gatorade checked out for poison every time, he wants the ball boys to get NBI clearance just in case they're terrorists in disguise and have his locker checked before the game just in case a bomb was placed on it. Hill already said he had no idea he wasn't supposed to be playing, the franchise employs people who are supposed to do all the coordination between the player and the doctor. Its not like the doctor didn't tell anyone, according to the article he forwarded emails to everyone in the organization. Anybody on the FO should have seen Hill playing, and then warned him about the email.
     
  14. RoxBeliever

    RoxBeliever Member

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    When they're young, they feel they're invincible.

    It's playoff time, players don't want to sit it out, neither the fans nor management. Similarly Lowry and Scola wanted to play through the pain late in our season.

    Mismanaged for 4-5 years? Hill was not consulting the best doctors then.

    If there's pain, don't play on it. That should be the rule. Even when the doctors give the okay. Especially with injury prone players, err on the side of caution.
     
  15. Rocketboi

    Rocketboi Member

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    we should also send our team doctors to Phoenix too. i heard they have a great medical staff.
     
  16. sbyang

    sbyang Member

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    Never under estimate the incompetence of management. Hill thought they'd be careful with his situation because they invested 92 mil. But really incompetent people have F'ed up much more money than 92 mil.
     
  17. DreamRoxCoogFan

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    The problem is that he didn't understand what the limitations from the surgery were. He just trusted that the team would fill him in on what he could and couldn't do. However, if you are getting operated on, it is your responsibility to understand your treatment. It doesn't matter that you have other medical staff treating you- you need to ask
     
  18. RV6

    RV6 Member

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    He specifically said people, including doctors, didn't believe he was really injured initially. He also said he was playing in pain, not because he wanted to be a hero,b ut because he was cleared. The second and third opinions don't have to be surgery related. He can get them at any point in regards to any symptom or issue he's having with his ankle. Call me crazy, but if we're talking about my health i'm not going to hand everything over to other people, especially if i see i'm not getting better or am having other issues. If you were hurt on the job, would you seriously not call up the doctor and get his diagnosis and rehab schedule yourself? If your manager has you out there working and youre still in pain, are you not going to wonder if something went wrong? My first instinct would be to ask the doctor why i'm in pain, under the assumption he cleared me too early. I would have then found out the mistake was made by my employer, not the doctor.

    Doctors aren't superhuman, neither are NBA general managers. They make mistakes. They aren't all upstanding citizens either. There's no guarantees, not even that the cashier at Mcdonalds is going to give you the correct change. It's up to you to confirm it...the difference is this isn't luch or breakfast, but your health. People should be on top of it and know what's going on. If you're not, then youre not making it a priority in your life and therefore deserve some blame.
     
  19. worzel gummidge

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    The Magic weren't going by the doctors orders unlike the Rockets.
     
  20. SacTown

    SacTown Member

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    similar to the way the Rockets mismanaged Mcgrady's knee
     

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