Game: An Autobiography by Grant Hill

Author:Grant Hill [Hill, Grant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

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The lockout ended. Facilities reopened. In evaluating my rookie season, I planned to strengthen in a couple areas away from the court.

Despite the occasional tails from games, I never felt unsafe in the town house, but I decided to move just to be on the safe side. I also realized that I wanted my friends close to me, just not that close. I was young and still relatively new to the NBA. Long-standing friendships were becoming a little difficult to juggle. I certainly didn’t do the best job establishing boundaries. Michael, who had become the director of marketing at the sports field house that Joe Dumars built, and Rob had started bringing people over and treating my place like it was their own. I won’t say I kicked them out, but I did encourage them to find their own residence.

Still, I wanted them to share in my experiences. There was an expectation to spread the wealth among a circle of friends when an athlete suddenly came into a lot of money and even a sense of guilt that you were the one who made it. They came along if I went to a steak house after the game. I respected that they could not afford the check on a nightly basis like I could. I often picked up the tab until it started to become an expectation and then an obligation. It was a ritual that I couldn’t help but come to resent. My dad’s warning about friends having the same amount of money in their wallet meant that everyone should pay their own way whenever we went out. I learned that lesson the hard way, and we experienced a slow straining of our relationships.

I settled on a home inside a community with a lengthy drive from the gate and a security guard who watched over the neighborhood. The spacious home was recently built with the basement unfinished. For the first time, I spent some of the money I had earned and outfitted the space with a weight room, a jacuzzi area, and a game room.

I also wanted to improve my diet and energy levels. The fatigue of cycling through practices, games, and travel had caught me off guard my rookie season. Will Robinson, a legendary Pistons scout and a former coach at Illinois State, sometimes slyly strolled by me in the corridors of the Palace, offering a couple words of wisdom and keeping it moving.

If you want to shoot, fake the pass. You want to pass, fake the shot.

Young man, you got to take care of yourself. You got to eat right. You got to sleep right.

The last message stuck. That first year, I’d often depart shootaround and head home for a pregame nap. First, I’d come to a major thoroughfare containing every fast-food joint imaginable. My big meal deliberation of the day consisted of deciding which drive-through to enter.

Being on the road worsened my dietary habits. Allan, Lindsey, and I often gathered to watch a movie inside one of our hotel rooms post-shootaround.

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