John Weisbrod April 8, 2005

On the latest results on Grant Hill:
“We obviously got a cat scan the day before yesterday and sent those results to Dr. Nunnally at Duke which is the doctor that did the successful surgery, the last surgery. The long and short of it is that bone above the plate where they did the surgical repairs is just really irritated and inflamed and that is what’s been causing his pain and his swelling. He reconfirmed that there was no damage to the repair and the ankle but perhaps that the bone that’s above the repair is sort of showing signs of distress of prolonged activity for the first time obviously in several years after he had the repair. His recommendation was that we take Grant out of play and let it fully heal and recuperate. The risk is that if he were to continue playing, running out of gate and out of balance, that’s usually been their main concern, that they want him to stay in balance. If he continues to play and the inflammation to that area continues to cause him to run out of balance it could ultimately spread that irritation or inflammation into the surgical site which would obviously not be a good scenario for his recuperation and future. We said that if were the middle of the year or earlier in the year certainly he expects that with a few weeks of fully being off of it, it would be back to normal and not anything problematic in the future that he wouldn’t need any further procedure or medical attention. Being that we are so late in the season and our games are obviously compressed, for every time that he were to play he’d then need four or five days rest to let the irritation go away. Obviously our schedule doesn’t permit that so based on that answer from the doctor and the timing in terms of what we have left, we determined that it was the prudent thing to do not to have him play anymore.”

On if he thinks this is something that will come back:
“Obviously that’s the question I asked because none of us are familiar with the way the body works in this regard. Dr. Nunnally’s opinion is that it’ll be fine, that this is a breaking in period, if you will, of that bone. He’s been off it and had so much work done on it for the past three years that even after it’s repaired, just the constant running and jumping, that bone in that area is responding to the stress and that irritation. When he stays off it and rests it and it recuperates it will actually be stronger and more fit than it was when he actually had the surgery done. It’s a matter of that bone in that part of his body reacclimating to the stresses of running and jumping.”

On this being independent of his shin:
“I don’t know, it’s impossible to tell if it would be or not. Obviously a kick to the shin above the plate is what began the inflammation or the irritation and because he continued to try and run and play on that, the irritation and the inflammation continued.”

On this hurting Grant badly for a month and he kept playing:
“Yeah, he’s been in a lot of pain. Obviously we’ve been trying to manage that and manage his practice schedule and try to keep him off of it as much as possible. After everything he’s been through I think he was reluctant to sit out for any reason other than the original ankle problem. I know it caused him frustration. He’s the captain of our team, he’s aware of the magnitude of the games and he kept taking the attitude, ‘I’ll have all off season to rest, I want to contribute as much as I can.’ He’s definitely been fighting through it in one form or another ever since the original kick which was six weeks or so ago now. He’s been playing through and responding to the pain pretty well and I think in his mind he would have continued to do that but we’re going to sort of take that matter out of his hands based on medical information that we have.”

On the adversity of Grant’s comeback:
“Well there were so many things that play and everyone thinks immediately of whether the ankles hurt or not, but there is so much more to it than that. Obviously when you sit out three full seasons there are other factors that make coming back difficult. There’s the actual physical issue that kept him out during that time. There’s mental and emotional part of knowing that, that’s been hurt. People don’t realize what a tough obstacle for a professional athlete that is to get over, just to get yourself mentally comfortable. Obviously the fact that he had not been playing basketball at all, in terms of rust and getting acclimated to timing and playing at the highest level and being expected to be a leader and a top performer, all of that stuff is difficult. It was a difficult time in his career to come back after all of that.”

On if watching Grant go through this, does it give you an appreciation of basketball players:
“He’s a good person and a mild-mannered guy. I think it’s been misconstrued what toughness is in sports. It’s not about ranting and raving and throwing your body around and taking technicals. What he’s done for that past eight weeks, which is sort of quietly put your head down and push through the pain and the speculation and the pressure of having to perform and the pressure of the battle that our team has been in. That’s a lot of stuff to handle. He’s handled it pretty darn well I think”

On if his ankle can make it through a full season:
“Dr. Nunnally is confident. Obviously any confidence that I would have or not have would just come from the medical people that we trust. I mean none of us knows about what goes on with the health and growth and strength of an ankle bone. We put our planning and our strategy and our anticipation of what to expect for the future in terms of team building and how he’s going to fit into all of that. It depends on what the doctor says and that’s really all we can go on.”

On will you be building the team this summer under assumption that he will be here:
“I think that we would have to take a very similar mentality to the one we did last year. We used our MCE to sign Hedo so that we would have a bonafied starter and a quality player at that position for the possibility that Grant wouldn’t be ready. Hedo will be back next year and we fill that in some regard we’re prepared for that possibility. Whether we go further than that in terms of depth looking at twos and threes, it’s tough to speculate on now it’ll depend on some of the other pieces that we look to acquire and some of the other things that we do in the off season and as I say all the time how they fit together as one big whole.”

On the rehab process for Grant and him being in a boot:
“I don’t know whether he will be in a boot or not. I think that’s likely just based on the fact that they want him to stay off it but it’s not really a rehab situation because he’s not rehabilitating from any kind of procedure or tear or break. It’s just a rest. It’s just a stay off of it and let it heal. It’s less about rehabilitation than it is about rest.”

On there being any other prescribed thing for him to do besides just resting:
“Well obviously when he gets to the point when it’s just healed, they’ll have him get active again. He doesn’t have to do anything active as part of recuperating from what’s going on now.”