Grant Hill's world was perfect once, or so it seemed.
He had won two national championships at Duke and was an All-Star with the Detroit Pistons. He was newly married to a Grammy-nominated singer, was in a television commercial featuring him in a tuxedo playing the piano and had signed a US$93 million contract when he moved to sunny Florida.
Four years and five ankle operations later, Hill is still happy -- imperfectly, but more completely. He and his wife, Tamia, emerged stronger from the frightening fable of pain and recovery they shared.
Entering this season, Hill had played only 47 games for the Orlando Magic since 2000, none last season. But at age 32, he is reclaiming the form he had at the turn of the century.
Friday night, buoyed by a scoring average of 19.9 points a game at small forward, Hill leads the resurgent Magic (9-5) into Madison Square Garden against the Knicks and continues to lift himself out of a three-year period of darkness.
"It has humbled me," he said. "I just think I'm better, I'm stronger, more appreciative of the opportunity to play, and I'm a better teammate and a better person."
Hill, the doting father of a 2-year-old daughter, Myla, described the emotional progress he made.
"The balance between the court, my family, the perspective I have, all that is better than it was five years ago," he said. "In a weird way, I'm glad it's happened."
Even now, "it" seems incredible to catalog. One after another came the operations, the attempted comebacks, then, one week after surgery to realign his left heel in March 2003, Hill was struck by a staph infection.
His fever spiked to 104 degrees, and he went into convulsions. His wife rushed him to an emergency room.
But nothing scared Hill more than when he took his wife to the hospital in Orlando that summer with a condition that at first could not be diagnosed.
Tamia Hill had felt numbness in her hands and feet soon after her husband's latest recovery had begun, but she said nothing. When she could not lift her legs out of bed, she knew something was very wrong.
In August 2003, Hill's doctors at Duke University immediately sent Tamia to specialists.
They told Tamia that she had multiple sclerosis at age 28.
"That's been harder to deal with than dealing with my own situation," Hill said. "I've always looked at the ankle as a bone that will heal or won't heal. It doesn't affect whether you live or die. You can still walk and resume a normal lifestyle with a bad ankle."
After first controlling the disease with medicine -- injections every other day -- Tamia Hill is managing her condition through diet and exercise. For the moment, it is considered inactive. Some days, her body feels better than it does on others.
"Unfortunately, MS often strikes when you're young and healthy," Tamia said earlier this week in a telephone interview. "But it's important to know it's not a death sentence, that you can live with this."
Tamia Hill, a rhythm-and-blues artist, just finished recording her fourth album and will tour next year. It was her husband's positive outlook that, in turn, inspired her.
"When I got the diagnosis -- wow, it was a lot for us to be dealing with," she said. "Everything was happening at one time. For me, his courage, how he dealt with his injuries -- that helped me. You need someone who sees the glass half full."
Janet Hill, Grant's mother, cried with Tamia when they learned of her condition. "I am amazed by her stamina as well -- they are unusual people, they are very much alike in their determination," said Janet, a consultant in Washington. "They refuse to let life's ups and downs get in the way."
Suddenly, Grant Hill had turned from being cared for to being a caregiver for an illness out of the realm of sports.
"For most of us athletes, we're selfish, things are catered to us, we're the center of our universe," said Hill, who had grown up observing a privileged sports culture. His father, Calvin, was a star running back for the Dallas Cowboys.
"It puts it in perspective, since we both went through something," Hill said. "Hers made us stronger as a family. Whether I play another 10 years or another day, there's more to life than putting the ball through the basket."
And Hill has lived that lesson. During his rehabilitation, he gathered his 46-piece collection of African-American art and negotiated a five-city tour for a show titled, "Something All Our Own," which stops in Springfield, Mass.
In two weeks, Hill's name will be installed there at the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Last season, he kept busy by taking local real estate classes, investing in commercial properties in Orlando, Phoenix and New Jersey, and building two houses with Habitat for Humanity.
"It helped me in terms of laying the foundation when my career is over," he said. But he quickly added, "Just not yet."
Hill was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week after his 32-point and 29-point performances last week. He is also averaging 5.2 rebounds and 4 assists a game.
"This year, unlike any of the other seasons, I haven't put the pressure on myself to be an All-Star, or to be something I was in the past," he said. "I just want to go out and have fun.
He played four games in his first season with Orlando, 14 and 29 the next two seasons. Each time after surgery, Hill would arrive at the Magic's practice facility at dawn and immerse himself in a pool for rehabilitation.
"I never saw him without a smile; he was jumping into pool at 6 in the morning until he could run on solid ground," said John Gabriel, the former Orlando general manager. "He never flinched. He never asked why."
Lon Babby, the longtime agent for Hill, said: "He has dealt with the adversity with complete grace. When bad things happen, he's peaceful."
Hill incorporated the rehabilitation into family vacations, bringing along a shooting coach or a trainer at all times, Tamia said.
"He was upbeat," his father said. "There were times when I said, `Why him?' I don't think he ever wallowed in pity. He's handled it a lot better than I would have."
Some scouts and opposing coaches notice that Hill does not have the same lift, but he compensates with accuracy (48 percent shooting) and leadership.
"It's tough to tell whether he's as physically explosive," Weisbrod said. "The one thing that's come out of his time off is that he's been a lot smarter."
Fourteen games into what Hill has termed his last comeback, the Magic know the test begins in January.
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