I have found the Fountain of Youth!
It has to be in Phoenix, right? How else can you explain Grant Hill? A guy who spent most of his 6 seasons in Orlando out with ankle injuries starts playing for the Suns and suddenly he’s almost indestructible and playing like he just got out of college. OK, maybe he’s not looking that young, but it is pretty miraculous what he’s been able to do.
When Hill signed with the Suns back in 2007, he only intended to play 2 more years. Now it’s almost 5 years later and Hill says he can still go for 2 more.
“I definitely think I can go another year, maybe two,” Hill said. “If the season were to end right now, and I would sort of evaluate the season, I would definitely want to come back and play next season… I didn’t anticipate being healthy and feeling this good and still enjoying playing, I’ll keep going until I can’t go or it’s not fun any more. But it’s still a lot of fun.”
Hill is currently the second oldest player in the NBA. He’ll turn 40 on October 5th, one day after the oldest player in the league, Portland’s Kurt Thomas.
As long as Hill keeps his productivity where it’s at, he should be fine. He doesn’t put up nearly the offensive numbers he used to and he definitely doesn’t have the explosiveness from his younger days, but he has been a solid part of that Suns team since he joined. He works great together with Steve Nash and it’s almost looks like those two are keeping each other young. The city of Phoenix loves him and the feeling seems to be mutual because Hill says he wants to retire a Sun.
Grant Hill is one of the “good guys” of the league. As a three-time NBA sportsmanship award winner he’s a great role model and I say we keep him around as long as we can. It’s hard for anyone to have a bad word to say about him (unless you’re a Kentucky fan and still a little bitter) and I don’t think anyone out there is wishing for his retirement.
