Fans in Orlando are having a tough time watching Grant Hill leave for Phoenix. From Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi:
Forget about loyalty.
Forget about commitment.
Go to the best team.
Go to a place where you have the best chance to get a ring.
Yep, this is what you’d expect from most any NBA player.
Just not Grant Hill.
That’s why my first reaction Thursday when I heard Hill would be leaving the Magic to go to the title-contending Phoenix Suns was not anger or animosity or even annoyance. It was just disappointment.
And sadness.
I thought Grant Hill was different. I thought he would do the classy thing. The noble thing. The right thing. Silly me. Somehow, I thought Grant was above being a mercenary. I thought he would make the difficult and decent choice, not the easy selfish one.
Umm, WTF? Does Bianchi not rememeber how the Magic got Hill in the first place? Apparently not — not once in his sad/bitter column does he mention how Hill ditched Detroit to chase Orlando’s money. The guy has been a mercenary since the day he (and his crutches) first set foot in Florida. Back when it looked like the Pistons might have had a shot to re-sign him, I never thought he’d do it for nostalgic reasons. No, the guy got paid, and now he wants a ring, it’s as simple as that.
I’ll never forget when Grant left Detroit because that year they drafted him he actually came out and said in an interview how he wanted to go to Detroit and be a Piston. He always claimed he respected Joe D and that he let his actions speak louder than words in an era where the NBA began to be all about yelling and grabbing your balls when you dunk on someone…
and then he ran off for more money, and look where it got him.. his whole career will be remembered for how he was injury prone and how he was always on a mediocre team. I for one am glad he has yet to sniff the NBA Finals. He didn’t screw over the team because Detroit got better without him (Ben Wallace, and start of 5 ECF), but he did screw over a city that absolutely adored him. I hope the Suns win a title next year, but if they do, Hill’s ring should get an *asterisk next to it.
and I know that my above post is different than my “well Grant would be good for the Pistons team now” comments from earlier, but I thought it over a little bit and I wouldn’t want him back either.
Current Orlando Magic GM: “I have nothing bad to say about (Hill),” Smith said. “We hope he gets the championship that he so deserves to have.” - from the Daytona Beach News-Journal
Bitter Magic fans blame Hill because he’s been played in only 35% of the team’s games during his contract. These same morons don’t remember Magic GM John Weisbrod trading Tracy McGrady for 15 cents on the dollar, year after year of rotten drafts, trading Mike Miller for Drew Gooden and Gordon Giricek, trading Gooden, blown 1st round pick Stephen Hunter and the rights to A. Vareijo for Tony Battie, or any number of similar bonehead moves. Grant Hill was the only class in the organization for half a decade and busted his ass to get back from injuries - something ignorant fans hold AGAINST Hill because it prevented the Magic from writing off the contract to insurance and using the cap space. Bianchi is a dope.
who cares, he’s a sports columnist. he’s paid to ruffle feathers. he may be wrong, but he’s a fan and it’s a knee jerk reaction. who here lives in se mich and remembers how everyone blew up when hill left for the magic? i can remember columns like this were written. plus look at home many of us went to the website and read the full story! $$$ bitches.
Boney, I remember when it was time for a new deal with Grant. He absolutely painted the idea in the press that he was coming back. Then he went to Orlando.
For some reason, that one hurt more than Ben Wallace . . . probably because Grant was one of the few solid players Detroit had at the time.
Another stroke of good fortune was Bison Dele’s departure from the league. A lot of money was roped into that guy. He couldn’t have made it easier on Detroit than he did when he retired.
summer league games in action.
http://www.nba.com/summerleague2007/scoreboard.jsp
Took me about a minute to sign up and then you can watch streaming feed of the game. Im assuming all this of course because its halftime of the Spurs/Sixers game and my feed is blank right now. But check it out now, if you dont get the NBA channel, so you know it works for tomorrow.
bianchi is actually from the D.
I was surprised Joe D. would even stoop back down to Hill’s level after he left the Pistons standing at the alter. I know the could’ve used him but only he if he was healthy…seems like Barnes is more of a Piston player to me.
This is beyond stupid. I tried to watch the sonics/mavs game online and got this
This live webcast is not available in your area.
Please check your local tv listings for broadcast info on this game.
wtf? do the morons at nba know that the internet goes everywhere? i realize this is just so I give up 5$ for NBA channel but come on its a itty bitty screen thats probably gonna freeze up non-stop. They cant let me watch whatever game I want?
fel I had the same problem. So I went here: http://85.92.128.155/~myp2p/forum/viewtopic.php?id=14580&p=3 and clicked on their link to the game
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia-live/nba/9912/500_nba-league_pass_dallas_051201.asx
So check back on that forum whenever a game is up and I think they’ll give the link. The link opens windows media player.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2928321
Billups has agreed to a deal that is for LESS money then the original 5 year - 60 million contract. 4 years - 46 million. Last year is a team option as well. Better contract maybe? Sounds like it may be. Let’s hope it isn’t “vicious”.
freep also is reporting this. seems this time its true! still screw andy miller…
Michael: if you read that ESPN article carefully, the “4-year, $46 million” contract they cite is what they said everyone was speculating about earlier this week — I don’t think anyone has said any dollar figures for this “new” deal.
yeah, the 4 year 46 million deal has a team option for the 5th year. that leaves the last year at about 14 million, a fairly reasonable number for a backloaded contract.
I lost interest in Hill when he wanted the superstar perks while he was here ( players and coaches he liked, plus a kind of ‘approval’ of Grant for our picks ) but he was unwilling to make the Franchise Player kind of sacrifices to stay here. There was that soft Mouse Money in Orlando, right?
To hell with him; we need to get younger, not carry around another old goat!
Maybe Webber and Howard can find their way to Phoenix, too, with Jalen Rose. Call up Jimmy King.
Thanks MattG
No problem fel. Just keep that link handy since tomorrows pistons sl game, you might run into the same problem. A guy on that forum said that the seattle game was blacked out in seattle. The nba is stupid. Thank God for pirates
for anyone else, that first link in my first comment goes to a forum and if you go to the last page when the game you want to watch has started, they’ll probably have a link there and you just click it and it opens windows media player so you can watch the game. If that doesn’t work just copy and paste the link in windows media player under file > open url.
I’m excited to see Amir and Samb and Max blocking shots tomorrow and see what Stuckey can do.
Ahhhhhhhhhh thanks Matt. Whoops.
For whatever reason I felt compelled to reply to an Orlando area blogger’s post about Grant Hill leaving on another site. Supposedly he was being the voice of reason and pointing out why it wasn’t really very suprising that Grant Hill was leaving Orlando and that the reaction from the first mentioned writer was over the top. All that was fine and dandy but reading the ENTIRE article I was shocked to find absolutely NO mention of Grant Hill ever being a Detroit Piston.
So I posted and bookmarked the site, figuring if nothing else SOMEONE would say “that’s a good point, Grant Hill was hardly a lifer in Orlando from the start”. Two days later nada. So Matt i’d have to say that it’s not just that Orlando writers have a SHORT memory, they also have a very selective one.
If anyone cares here’s the link, I’m the first “anonymous” poster:
http://whitwatson.sunsportstv.com/2007/07/grant-me-break.html