一则消息让我们泪流满面！
After this season, Hill might hang 'em up
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Published November 28, 2006
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He offers glimpses of his past all-star self, a skilled craftsman at work.
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He looks as if he's enjoying the game immensely while shepherding his younger teammates.
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And moreover, he appears healthier than at any time during his star-crossed career with the Orlando Magic.
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Why, then, would SG Grant Hill even mention retirement?
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Hill tells the Sentinel that retiring is a viable option at the end of the season when his seven-year contract with the Magic expires.
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I actually had asked Grant about playing next season -- the length and terms of a deal that might appeal to him and the Magic -- when he volunteered the notion of hanging up his sneakers.
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"I could do that," Hill said, nodding. "I don't know. There's something to be said about going out healthy, leaving on your own terms, while still being able to play at a certain level.
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"I don't know. . . . I'm not really thinking about it right now. We'll see."
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Hill squirms just talking about it.
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Although he's 34 and rebuilt through six surgeries since 2000, I never really bought into this possibility: Grant finishing this season in one piece and riding off into the sunset or, more likely, into the business world.
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After missing five prime years, he seemingly wanted to milk the most out of the time he had left.
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"I can understand that," Magic General Manager Otis Smith said of Hill's notion to go out on a healthy note. "Nothing would surprise me with Grant. It wouldn't surprise me either way."
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The physical, mental and emotional trauma has taken its toll on Hill and his family. He goes through a rigorous program just to play.
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Last season, when he was out with a sports hernia injury, he told me he'd rather quit than subject himself to a seventh operation.
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After a hernia surgery early last season didn't take, Hill went the nonsurgical route this summer, taking a boom-or-bust, rehab or retire, approach.
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By the look of his play, his arduous rehab was a success. So far, anyway. Maybe all the work he put in was to set up a last hurrah. Maybe he can't commit because he never has made it to the end of a season with the Magic as an active player.
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Whatever, the next Grant Hill "comeback" might carry the ultimate twist this summer: Return . . . or retire?
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Kuester: UNC's Smith eschewed blue language
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Texas Tech tyrant Bobby Knight (far right) will break Dean Smith's all-time Division I record for victories soon, but Knight already has passed Smith in classless acts.
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While Knight would have no vocabulary without cursing, Smith wouldn't tolerate potty-mouthed Tar Heels
