Grant Hill claims Pistons, Magic staffs mishandled his injuries, hurt his career

jjswipe
jjswipe Members Posts: 1,039 ✭✭
edited April 2011 in From the Cheap Seats
Grant Hill told Fox Sports Radio’s Jason Whitlock that the medical and training staffs of the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic mismanaged his injuries and adversely affected his career.

While the belief around the league was that Hill played through an injured ankle in a first-round series against Miami in 2000 to prove his toughness, he told Whitlock, “I did not try to prove at any point how tough I was. At no time did I go against doctor’s orders or team orders to play in my time in Detroit or my time in Orlando. I followed the orders.”

That was his final season in Detroit, and Hill feels his career was hurt by how the injury was handled. He broke his ankle in the Miami series and was impacted by the injury for the next four seasons, when he was with Orlando.

“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.”

Despite having surgery in May 2000 and needing crutches when he visited Orlando in July, the Magic signed Hill to a $92 million contract in August. Hill was playing in pickup games for the Magic the next month.

“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.”

Hill was in the starting lineup when the Magic’s season opened that year on October 31.

“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.

Hill played in just 57 games over the next four years for Orlando.

DO Y'ALL FEEL HE HAS A POINT AND THEY CAUSED HIM FROM BEING AN ALL-TIME GREAT OR DID HE JUST HAVE THE SAME MISFORTUNE AS SAM BOWIE, T-MAC, AND GREG ODEN???

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