9911050131
DETROIT FREE PRESS
991105
Friday, November 05, 1999
METRO FINAL
1C
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1999, Detroit Free Press
TIME TO FACE IT: HILL CAN'T WIN BY HIMSELF
Grant Hill must feel like the boy in the bubble. Every autumn, people come to
peek at how he's progressing. Has he changed? Is he ready to wear the crown?
Has he grown fangs? Adopted a scowl? Is this the year of Grant Hill, finally?
Is this the year? Is this the year? . . .
Problem is, the years are going by. And eventually, we have to accept that the
Grant you see is the Grant you get. Which is not a bad thing. Not at all. It's
a driving, scoring, slashing, passing, sometimes-amazing basketball machine.
But it is not Michael Jordan. It is not Wilt Chamberlain. It's not swagger,
pose, attitude, ego, dominance, or dictatorship.
Grant Hill is who Grant Hill is. Since his arrival in Detroit, certain fans,
like patrons at a strip bar, have been applauding his skills while
anticipating something else. What exactly are they waiting for? Nothing short
of a Jordan-like takeover.
They expect Hill to win it by himself.
Never mind that Jordan would be the first to tell you that in order to win he
needed star teammates like Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, he needed role
players like Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley, he needed a perfectly malleable
coach like Phil Jackson. Never mind. Most people think that if you popped
Michael Jordan onto any team, he would drag it to the top.
And they want to think that about Hill.
Well, let's kill that idea right here. It has been six years already. Give it
up. It isn't true. Grant Hill is not Chamberlain in the '60s. He's not Jordan
in the early '90s. He's not going to take any team -- this one, or anyone
else's -- all the way all by himself.
And you know what?
He never said he would.
Maybe we couldn't hear him outside the bubble.
Crossroads of career are here
Now the reason this is important right now, as the Pistons play their home
opener tonight against the New York Knicks, is that Hill is at the crossroads
of his career, chronologically and contractually.
He is likely at his physical peak -- age 27 -- and he is in the last year of
his original six-year deal, a deal that, by the way, to his credit, he has
never challenged nor complained about, even though that at an average of $5.6
million a year, he is woefully underpaid compared to other NBA players.
(Former Fab Fivers Chris Webber of Sacramento and Juwan Howard of Washington,
whom Hill dominated in college, make far more than he does, just as an
example.)
Hill has patiently waited. He has listened to others. This is the year he
determines his own fate.
And my concern is that, if the Pistons falter this season -- if they go out
again in the first round of the playoffs -- Hill might see himself trapped in
Detroit by a sticky shadow of disappointment. He might view the Palace as a
place where he is doomed to sing the never-win-the-big-one blues.
In which case, some other market might not only offer Hill a different roster
and coaching staff, but, more important, a chance to reinvent himself, to go
someplace where there is no disappointment dragging like tin cans from his
fender, where no one says, "It's been six years, and he hasn't gotten it done
yet. He's overrated."
So he leaves. And then what do the Pistons have to show for their long
investment? Just an empty bubble, and a chorus of what-might-have-been.
Early returns are good
"I'm looking forward to this season more than any I ever have," Hill told me
this week. "I haven't felt this good about my position and my teammates since
...I don't know when."
Early returns suggest that's true. Hill scored 41 points in the opener against
Miami and 30 points the next night against Orlando.
But both games were losses.
Which only proves my point. Hill's going hog-wild will not, by itself, win the
Pistons anything. They still need rebounds. They still need shot-blocking,
They need defense. They need someone to shut down the opposing big man.
Hill can play the lead. But he can't play all the parts.
"Are you comfortable now with the sentence, 'Give me the damn ball'?" I asked
him.
"Yeah, I am," he said. "I feel I'm wiser and better than when I first got
here. I want the ball in my hands now. I don't mean this in a negative way,
but if I pass the ball to an inferior player and let him determine the fate of
a game, I'm doing the team a disservice. The ball should be in the best
player's hands."
I'm glad Grant thinks of himself as the best player. He didn't always. And his
leadership skills should be equally heightened, now that Joe Dumars is
retired, and Grant doesn't feel an obligation to defer to Joe's experience.
But keep this in mind: Grant Hill will not bring a title to this town by
himself. He is best as a complementary superstar, the way he was at Duke with
Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley. And as this season unfolds, and the
biggest story will be whether Hill comes back or not -- and whether he's worth
the money he will command -- we should all remember that.
Grant Hill can only be who Grant Hill is.
But he can choose to be it anyplace he wants.
MITCH ALBOM can be reached at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Listen to
Mitch's radio show, "Albom in the Afternoon," 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM
(760).
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