Nice Start : Rookie Grant Hill Already One of the Most Popular Players in the NBA

Is Grant Hill as good as Michael Jordan?

Hardly. All the young Detroit Piston would have to do to be like Mike is average 29 points as a rookie, 33 the rest of his career, win scoring titles his last seven seasons plus three MVP awards and a defensive player of the year trophy and retire at 30 off three consecutive championships.

How about, as good as Scottie Pippen?

Now we’re getting closer. As a rookie, Hill looks to be about where Pippen was after Scottie had been in the league four years.

How about, too good to be true?

Absolutely.

An NBA, awash in post-adolescent monsters, finally has a prospect in the tradition of Magic Johnson, with an electrifying game and a head that isn’t expanding to keep pace.

The contrast could hardly be more dramatic, arriving as Hill does in an age of precocious franchise topplers (Chris Webber), practice-skippers (Isaiah Rider), punks (Christian Laettner), mercenaries (Shaquille O’Neal) and boors (Derrick Coleman). If over-hyped prima donnas are reaping millions in endorsements, imagine the bounty that awaits Hill.

He has played the piano on Letterman. He has a fat deal with Chevrolet, a popular choice among Piston fans, whose last franchise star, Isiah Thomas, endorsed Toyotas.

The league can’t do enough to promote Hill,

creating the role of spokesman for the rookie game on All-Star weekend for him. Of course, Hill may not get to play in it, since he’s leading everyone in the voting for the real game, with a total, 488,717 votes, that’s 21% higher than the next highest candidate, Shaq, who has polled 404,042. That’s one even Jordan can’t match.

At this point, your average young monster might start complaining about the pressures on him, demands on his time and perhaps the many unfair things said about him in the press when he was in college.

He might do this at the news conference his team holds in each new city to get all the media stuff over at once, after which he would be available only after the game.

But Hill talks at shoot-arounds, before games, after games and, in another departure, is thrilled by everything going on around him.

“It just seems like yesterday I was in high school,” he says, “pretending I was Julius Erving and pretending I was Isiah Thomas and pretending I was Michael Jordan. Every time I stepped on the court, I was somebody else.

“Now in some way I’m kind of in their shoes, in the sense that people do the same with me--I guess. So I’m told. It’s just hard to believe.

“For example, we played Philadelphia and Julius Erving called me over and talked about half an hour, 40 minutes after the game. I couldn’t believe Dr. J was talking to me, to give me advice, this and that. . . .

“He gave me his phone number and I was like a little kid. I got on the bus to go to the airport, I was calling his number with my cellular phone to make sure it was the right number--and hanging up when the answering machine answered. I just couldn’t believe it was Dr. J’s number.”

OK, he’s nice. Now, if he can just become a star. . . .

*

Most NBA players grow up without a lot of money and struggle to deal with everything that’s suddenly put before them.

Hill grew up with wealth and fame and began dealing with it years ago.

His father, Calvin, was an NFL star, a running back with the Dallas Cowboys. His mother, Janet, a suite mate of Hillary Rodham Clinton at Wellesley, is a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm. Determined not to spoil their son, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Growing up in tony Reston, Va., Grant couldn’t make phone calls on weeknights. He was allowed one each on Saturday and Sunday of no more than 30 minutes. He couldn’t go to parties or dances until he was 16 and couldn’t leave the neighborhood unless one of his parents was home.

Grant’s greatest fear was that someone would think he was stuck up.

At 14, he starred on an AAU team that played a Detroit team with Webber and Jalen Rose in a tournament, but turned down a chance to try out for the high school varsity, then went off when Calvin said he had to or forget about basketball. Grant wanted to play with his friends on the JV team.

When Calvin insisted it would be varsity or nothing, Grant yelled that would be a form of child abuse.

Said Calvin to Corky Meinecke of the Detroit Free Press, “I’m looking around the room thinking, ‘What have I done?’ ”

Says Grant, “Back then, you’ve got to understand, I played basketball and I was tall and I guess I was good at it but I didn’t live, eat sleep and die basketball. There was a whole lot more to my life than basketball.

“My dad at that time probably wanted me to play more than I did. . . . I guess I was in my semi-rebellious stage where your parents tell you something and you don’t want to do it but you eventually do it anyway.”

“Both of my good friends were a year ahead of me and I used to dream of playing with them on JV. I just wanted to play with my friends, that’s all. Most of those (varsity) guys were 16, 17. They had driver’s licenses, they had girlfriends, they just were into different things than a 14-year-old was.

“I eventually went out there and played and realized, ‘Hey, I could play varsity and I did OK,’ and it really was a big confidence booster. And after that year, it really just steamrolled from there. I started to get a lot of attention from college coaches and got better and better and my interest in basketball started to grow.”

In his freshman season at Duke, Hill showed so much that Coach Allan Bristow of the Charlotte Hornets said he would have drafted Hill No. 1 if he had come out in any of the next three years. Since Bristow drafted Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson in that time, this is a formidable compliment.

After Hill’s sophomore year, General Manager Donnie Walsh of the Indiana Pacers compared him to a young Erving.

In his junior year, the 6-foot-8 Hill took over at point guard when Bobby Hurley was injured.

Nevertheless, Hill didn’t average more than 15 points until he was a junior and never averaged 20. He did play in three NCAA finals, however.

Still, he didn’t have numbers--and he did have competition. His draft situation was similar to that of Jordan, who was drafted after Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie in 1984.

Coach Mike Dunleavy of the Milwaukee Bucks thought seriously about Hill--as a point guard--but decided he needed the biggest scorer, Glenn Robinson.

The Dallas Mavericks, with young stars at Hill’s natural positions, took point guard Jason Kidd.

The Pistons took Hill, who proclaimed his delight, signed and proceeded to burn up the exhibition season. Del Harris called him a future Hall of Famer--before opening night, when Hill made his NBA debut, hitting Harris’ Lakers for 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

However, when it comes to fame, the first month is the easiest. When it comes to stardom, the first month is irrelevant.

*

Welcome to the NBA, Month III.

Hill’s torrid start and Piston respectability are memories as they arrive at the Forum to begin their first West Coast trip.

Ironically, as Hill gains ground in the All-Star balloting, he’s losing ground in the rookie race, although few seem to realize it.

Tossing out the first four weeks when the late-arriving Robinson was getting in shape and learning plays, the Big Dog is averaging more points, 22 to 18, and shooting better, 45% to 39%.

It’s a rare SportsCenter recap of a Piston game that doesn’t include footage of Hill slashing to the basket and dunking. But when he doesn’t slash and jam, he’s having trouble making jump shots and opponents are giving him more and more attention.

“Basically, your game plan is set for Hill, (Terry) Mills, (Joe) Dumars and you take your chances with everybody else,” Harris says. “For a rookie to have to go against a stacked offense all the time is difficult.

“You offer the outside shot. The thing is, he’s so good with the ball, he can still get a shot. Plus his range is not point-blank. He can make a 15- to 17-footer but he’ll develop (more range). All the great players do. I’ve seen Jordan, Dr. J, (Clyde) Drexler, Pippen, Magic Johnson--they didn’t have range when they came in but they developed it.”

Hill is working on it.

He arrives at the Forum early with the scrubs who are there for drills with assistant coach Brendan Malone. While Malone puts Ivano Newbill, Mike Peplowski and Rafael Addison through their paces, Hill practices 20-footers.

The Pistons, who went 7-6 in November, were 2-11 in December, a career’s worth of defeats for Hill at Duke, but his demeanor hasn’t changed.

Asked by the young correspondent for a Korean basketball magazine to pose with him for a couple of pictures, Hill agrees, mustering a little smile.

When the Korean discovers he hasn’t uncovered his lens, Hill musters more smiles.

He says he doesn’t feel worn down or put upon. He doesn’t have to cut anything back. He just has some basketball things to learn, which he knew all the time.

“It’s kind of confusing,” Hill says. “A lot of things are being thrown at you and you go from really having no responsibilities at all in college--all of a sudden you’re on your own, you’re independent, you have a lot of obligations.

“But I enjoy it. At least right now in my life, I’m enjoying all this. The most important thing, of course, is to play basketball. But if I’m not playing basketball, if I’m not playing a video game or eating or sleeping, I don’t mind making an appearance or doing an interview. ‘Cause I know that one day people won’t want to interview me, so at least while you guys do, I’ll do as many as I can.”

An unremarkable Forum crowd of 13,228 watches the Pistons lose again. Hill has an unremarkable game--18 points, five of 12 from the floor--but still shows a lot. He takes the 20-footers whenever they’re there and makes a couple, but his bid for a highlight-reel windmill dunk is blocked by Vlade Divac. He still makes SportsCenter with a great block of his own on a fast break.

“He’s aged,” Harris says later. “He’s got some lines on his face. I think the losing has taken a toll because he’s not accustomed to it. But he’s gallant. He still competes. But I can tell, he’s got the weight of the team on his shoulders.”

The NBA’s first hero candidate of the ‘90s has more than that on his shoulders, but it’s OK.

All he has to do is work on the jumper and, aside from that, never change.