Hill: I’d like to play two more years
Apr 27, 2011, 7:56 PM | Updated: 9:12 pm
With the 2010-11 season over for the Phoenix Suns, forward Grant Hill is headed towards free agency and, at 38, isn’t ready to call it a career just yet.
“I’m going to keep playing until the wheels fall off,” Hill said as a guest on FOXSportsradio.com’s Real Talk with Jason Whitlock. “I’d like to play two more years. I’d like to get to 40.”
Hill, who averaged 13.2 points per game last year for the Suns, has missed only three games in three seasons with the team. His leadership and defensive presence will still be welcomed on pretty much any NBA team, and with this in mind Phoenix is expected to make resigning him a top priority this offseason.
“Obviously I’m year by year,” Hill said. “If it’s a year from now and I just don’t feel it anymore or I feel like I can’t go out there and be productive, then I know it’s time. I’ve learned a lot about taking care of myself, about nutrition, about training, about just getting my rest and doing all the things necessary to be able to go out there and still compete.”
Hill also has unfinished business at the professional level. After winning back-to-back NCAA Championship titles while at Duke, he has never won an NBA title or even reached the Finals.
While the Suns may not be Hill’s best chance at a championship within the next two years, he kept silent about details surrounding his free agency options.
Instead, he talked about reaching out to athletes who were successful in a variety of sports while in their late 30s and 40s. Surfer Larry Hamilton and Redskins’ cornerback Darrell Green were among the most influential.
“The thing they both said that made a lot of sense was it’s upstairs, it’s in the head,” Hill said. “You still have to have that same vision, that same goal, that same belief that you can go out there and do it.
“Once you lose it upstairs you might as well walk away.”
The good news for the Suns is it’s evident that Hill hasn’t lost it and remains confident that he can continue to perform for at least a couple more years to come.
