When Grant Hill was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, he hoped he would remain there for his entire career and eventually do what Isiah Thomas did, win NBA Championships.
As we know, Hill did not remain with the Pistons for his entire career (he only played six seasons in the Motor City) and he was never able to lead the Pistons to a Championship.
During a recent interview with the Detroit Free Press, Hill talked about how Pistons GM (at the time) Joe Dumars reached out and gave him an opportunity to return to Detroit but he did not think it was the right move.
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Grant Hill divulges why he did not return to Detroit Pistons
Grant Hill noted that Joe Dumars was talking about moving Tayshaun Prince to make room for him.
“Those (Pistons) teams were really special, and the way they played and their unselfishness, I would’ve fit right in and I wouldn’t have felt the weight of, because he was going to move somebody from that group. He was talking about moving Tayshaun (Prince).”
“Yeah, that’s at least how it would’ve been presented to me. I don’t know. I felt like I knew what I had done before was good, and I knew I wasn’t the same player. To come back here and be a shell of yourself, or not at the level or standard that you had for yourself while you were here, I think that probably scared me. Not unpacking it too much, but we talked about it and we talked about Mr. D (Bill Davidson), let’s make it right and the situation is better now. I ultimately felt that going out to Phoenix and just a change of scenery. Things had been not great, probably a little toxic in Orlando, that that was probably the best thing. I don’t know if I unpacked everything that had happened in Orlando mentally and emotionally at that point. We played the Pistons in Orlando that last year, we played them in the first round of the playoffs. And they swept us, we were here for Games 1 and 2. But I brought my wife up, and I was telling her it’s a whole different energy in the Palace. We were really thinking about it. But sometimes I think about what that could’ve been like and what it would’ve been like, and full circle coming back. At the time, I felt like that was the right decision for me.”
Nation, would you have liked to see Grant Hill return to the Pistons for another chance at an NBA Championship?
