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Motown man Grant Hill goes one-on-one with CNNSI.com
Posted: Tuesday May 02, 2000 03:21 PM
Grant Hill is the heart of the Detroit Pistons and this past season he averaged more than 25 points a game. But a badly bruised left foot sidelined the perennial all-star for the last three games of the regular season. Hill, 27, is expected to be in uniform for his team's playoff opener Saturday in Miami. In this one-on-one interview with CNNSI.com's Mike Galanos , the 1994 Duke grad talks about how he has changed his game from college and become a better player. Grant Hill: I think before I end my career, if you look at a lot of one-on-one drives to the basket, and I think now, if you look at the shot chart and look at the way I score, I score in a lot of different areas. It's not just one spot. Mike Galanos: As the story goes, you started out with five-foot one-handers. How was that to start over? And was it humbling at all? Hill: For about two months it was all just one-hand shots and it was close to the basket, two, three feet from the basket. It was basically just redeveloping and relearning the mechanics. I had to kind of relearn that. Even now I'm kind of behind. Everyone else has been shooting the way they've been shooting for years. I've been just shooting this way for about two years. So repetition and getting a lot of shots up is vitally important for me. But yeah, I mean it's definitely humbling. Galanos: You guys are in a great playoff push right now. But yet everywhere you go, you can read about Grant Hill's future. How do you not think about free agency and beyond and concentrate on what's going on now? Hill: If you were to look at this year, you'd think there were only three free agents. Myself, (Tim) Duncan and (Tracy) McGrady. And I'm sure there are other free agents out there. I really haven't thought about it in that sense. It's hard when you are caught up in the whirlwind of 82 games. You've got Philly one night, Indiana the next night. I mean, you can't be thinking about that and so I haven't. I understand people want to know -- the media, fans and whatnot. But I've kind of stuck to my guns on that and I'm just going to deal with that, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Galanos: Grant, so much has been made about you and Tim Duncan being on the phone trying to work something out to play together. How do you respond to all these rumors? Hill: He and I aren't as close as everyone I guess portrays us to be. When I say that, we don't speak on the phone regularly. We don't speak at all. I've never talked to him on the phone. I've just basically talked to him when I've seen him. We played against each other when we were in college. We did a commercial together and the all-star games. And that's pretty much the only times I've really talked to Tim. Galanos: Grant, this is the first season that you've played as a married man (Hill wed recording artist Tamia Washington last summer). Is marriage agreeing with you? Hill: I think you learn a little about patience. You learn a little about sacrifice, compromising, those types of things. Not that my wife and I have had all these problems. But you know, dealing with another human being every day, I think you learn to have patience and compromise and stuff like that. The next time we move, we need to get a house that has two bathrooms. We share the same bathroom and I have no space (laughs). Of course, she would probably argue and say she has no space either. So, maybe we'll just add on to the bathroom we have. But the bathroom situation is definitely a problem (laughs).
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