G. Hill goes from can’t miss to can’t play

Grant Hill, the one-time heir to Michael Jordan’s marketing riches, is expected to miss next season following the fourth surgery on his problematic left ankle in March.

Hill has appeared in only 47 of a possible 246 games since going to the Magic in August 2000.

Hill is the cautionary tale of this hype-driven week leading to the NBA Draft.

Hill was one of the spiffily dressed young men waiting to hear his name called on draft night in 1994.

He had it all: the charm, the smarts, the basketball skills, the Duke University pedigree.

He was the can’t-miss kid from South Lakes High School in Reston, the son of an ex-NFL running back who had the hopes of a city on his 6-foot-8 frame. He was the anointed one, ready to make the Pistons relevant again.

Hill had that easy way about him on the court. He could fill up a box score without disturbing those around him. He could see beyond the NBA’s single-minded obsession with gaudy scoring numbers. He felt no need to put up 30 points if it meant ignoring his teammates in the offense.

Hill was en route to a Hall of Fame career in Detroit, putting the lie to the notion that Duke’s fundamentally sound players are somehow ill-equipped to flourish in the NBA’s one-on-one game. Hill was a five-time All-Star in Detroit who, in his last season there, averaged 25.8 points and 6.6 rebounds.

He was destined to lead the Magic to the NBA Finals, or so it was assumed three summers ago, when the Magic acquired both Hill and Tracy McGrady on the same day. McGrady, not yet an All-Star then, was the complement to Hill, upside-down as that view is today.

Three years later, the Magic are haunted by what might have been with Hill and McGrady in the mediocre-steeped Eastern Conference. It could have been their conference. These could have been their halcyon seasons.

Instead, the Magic are like so many other flawed teams in the East, looking to get lucky this week.

Hill, who will turn 31 in August, is broken down, perhaps done as a player, although no one is inclined to express that sentiment.

The notion seems too unfair, indelicate, even harsh.

As one of the NBA’s good guys, Hill deserves better than to have another date with uncertainty.

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