One of the more unfortunate aspects of being a sports fan during this era is the near lack of a player that you can totally place your faith in in all respects. Oh, there are lots of guys who’ll hit home runs in the bottom of the ninth to win, or make a daring pass through two defenders to keep a drive going. But, in the end, would you feel comfortable letting your son or daughter wear a T-shirt or jersey with that athlete’s name and number on it?
Admittedly, I don’t have any kids, but that list, for me, is a short one, and it got even shorter over the weekend, when NBA player Grant Hill announced his retirement. Hill closed the door on a 19-year NBA career that was admittedly short on the spectacular. Yes, Hill, whose father, Calvin, a Baltimore native, had a fine NFL career and whose mother, Janet, was a college roommate of Hilary Clinton, was himself a seven-time NBA All-Star and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist. He finished ranked 81st on the league’s all-time scoring list and 79th on the assist list. In Hill’s first six seasons in the league, he averaged nearly 22 points and eight rebounds, as well as more than six assists a game.
In the long history of the NBA, only Oscar Robertson posted higher numbers than that for the first six years of his career. Indeed, at the end of the 2000 season, you would have sworn that Grant Hill would be the next Michael Jordan, the next Magic Johnson, or even better, a hybrid of the two, an earlier model of LeBron James, if you will. But unlike Johnson and Jordan, who successfully lobbied to have coaches fired, and James, who came to personify athletic narcissism with a one-hour special to announce where he would be playing, Hill remained the boy next door.
Alas, things went a bit sideways for Hill after that 2000 season. He lost most of the next six seasons battling an ankle injury that eventually made his career a shell of what it could have been. But Grant Hill’s biggest mark is in the grace and dignity that he brought to the game. He politely shrugged off the implication left by a competitor that the fact that Hill was the product of a two-parent household made him less than authentic in the black community. And it was Hill who lent his persona to a campaign to challenge the idea of using the word “gay” as a pejorative. Contrast that with Indiana center, Roy Hibbert who drew a $75,000 fine from the NBA in part for uttering homophobic slur.
Grant Hill always retained an air of honor and professionalism, becoming the only player to win the NBA’s "Sportsmanship Award" three times. The saying "Nice guys finish last," is famously attributed to former baseball manager Leo Durocher. It's a certainty that Mr. Durocher never met Grant Hill.