By Mike Freeman
CBSSports.com National Columnist
His grandfather Malcolm McDonald was a longtime resident of New Orleans and a smart businessman who provided money and backbone to Dillard University, a historically black college that moved its campus to a temporary location on Poydras Street following Hurricane Katrina.
His mother, Janet Hill, was born in the Crescent City. She’s the daughter of two professional parents who insisted segregated New Orleans was no excuse for failure. She attended Wellesley to study mathematics in the late 1960s and then received her master’s degree in math education from the University of Chicago a short time later.
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"Something All Our Own", The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art.
Tamia is a chart-topping R&B artist with four Grammy nominations. 
- "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
Bill Cosby - "The important thing is never to stop questioning."
Albert Einstein - "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. "
By Song of Solomon VIII,7 - "One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. "
Maya Angelou - "Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values."
Ayn Rand - "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. "
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) - "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell, where his influence stops."
Henry Brooks Adams - "But did thee feel the earth move? "
Ernest [Miller] Hemingway (1899 - 1961) - "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
Eleanor Roosevelt - "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought."
Albert Szent-Gyorgi , 1937 Nobel Prize winner - "God puts something good and loveable in every man His hands create."
Mark Twain (1835-1910) - "It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company."
George Washington - "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968) - "Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!"
Elizabeth Barret Browning - "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Theodore Roosevelt - "One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain."
Bob Marley - "Call it what you will, incentives are what get people to work harder."
Nikita Khruschev - "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on."
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) - "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Winston Churchill, Sir (1874-1965) - "Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever"
Mahatma Gandhi - "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
Walt Disney - "Wisdom begins in wonder."
Socrates - The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
- "You can't shake hands with a clenched fist."
Indira Gandhi - "Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."
Abraham Lincoln - "The only way to have a friend is to be one."
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values."
Ayn Rand - "Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society."
William Makepeace Thackeray - "The truth is more important than the facts."
Frank Lloyd Wright - "Dreams are the touchstones of our personality."
Henry David Thoreau - "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - "I never think of the future - it comes soon enough."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) - "Do or do not. There is no try."
Yoda, character in "The Empire Strikes Back" - "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr - "Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world."
Eleanor Roosevelt - "Keep up the good work and only good can come out of it."
Anonymous - "I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
Booker T. Washington - "Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!"
Elizabeth Barret Browning - "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
Maya Angelou (1928 - ) - "A bird in the hand is worth two in a bush"
English Proverb - "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - "One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."
Maya Angelou (1928 - )
Hill hopes NBA All-Stars will shine light on New Orleans’ woes
February 13th, 2008Grant Looking at the Sunny Side
January 14th, 2008By Jerry Brown
eastvalleytribune.com
Ask anyone around Grant Hill — coaches, trainers, even Suns general manager Steve Kerr — and they look at the sunny side of last Wednesday’s appendectomy, which will keep him out of action for at least two weeks.
Hill isn’t so sure. After missing so much basketball to injuries over the past seven years, every game is a gift he wants to embrace. So much so that there were nights during the first 34 games this season when he worked through pains that would have kept him out in the past in hope of playing a full season for the first time in a decade (he played 81 for the 1997-98 Pistons).
Hill said he plans to miss only “six or seven games,” meaning he could return next week during the Suns’ fourgame Eastern road trip that starts Jan. 22 in Milwaukee.
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Grant Hill underwent successful appendectomy surgery
January 11th, 2008By Stefan Swiat, Suns.com
Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill underwent successful appendectomy surgery this afternoon, the team announced. The procedure was performed by Dr. V. “Bob” Evani at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. Hill is expected to miss 2-3 weeks.
Hill underwent the surgery this afternoon at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix and is expected to miss two to three weeks. The Suns’ forward began experiencing pain on Tuesday night, according to Suns Head Coach Mike D’Antoni.
“He was sick to his stomach. He was having pain down there, and we thought it might be the flu like Raja (Bell) had,” added D’Antoni.
Hill attended this morning’s shootaround at US Airways Center, but was unable to fully participate due to the discomfort.
“His stomach cramping worsened a little bit, so he went over to the emergency room,” Suns Head Athletic Trainer Aaron Nelson told Suns.com. “We did all the tests to rule anything out and that’s what showed up.”
Renowned physician Dr. V. “Bob” Evani, the same surgeon that performed assistant coach Alvin Gentry’s identical operation last season,executed the procedure just prior to Suns tip-off.
The 35-year-old veteran is averaging 15.9 points, 4.6 boards and 3.5 assists, and had started all 34 games, his most since starting 39 straight in 1999-2000, his last season with the Detroit Pistons.
After much adversity, Hill, family thriving in Valley
January 3rd, 2008The mother of two with the angelic voice already had held a morning meeting with Santa Claus and would be shopping for presents in the afternoon.
Her husband was slated to compact his tall frame at a cafeteria table for the chicken fajita lunch with their older daughter’s kindergarten class.
But at this point, the couple convened cozily on the couch – 5-year-old Myla was at school – along with resting 4-month-old Lael and Sweetie, the family’s Maltese. The husband and wife talked about life, love, laughs and lessons when she noticed that they both were wearing jeans with silver shirts.
“I got dressed before you,” she said.
“I wore this to take Myla to school,” he retorted in the first of a few playful debates, such as how she saw his eyes slightly open – though he didn’t offer to get up – when Lael cried in the middle of the night.
More glamorous days often are the norm for the Valley’s newest celebrity couple, as Grant Hill is enjoying a career renaissance with the Suns and Tamia maintains her career as a Grammy-nominated songstress with four albums.
The real glamour is in their everyday romance. It is a bond forged out of a 1996 blind date arranged by Anita Baker. It is a bond strengthened by helping each other through scares and recoveries caused by his life-threatening staph infection after one of five ankle surgeries and her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
They put the “power” in power couple. Grant took charge of his basketball career, passing on residential roots, better money and deeper bonds to join the Suns for what has proved to be the right situation. Tamia took charge of her music career, starting her own label, Plus 1 Music Group, and working more than ever to run it.
Less than six months ago, Grant said, “Maybe we should move,” to Tamia after they had bought their “forever” home in Orlando, where he played for the Magic from 2000 to 2007. The Hills have barely stopped moving since then. He signed with the Suns in July and bought their Paradise Valley home with Tamia’s approval by video because she carried Lael until August.
“The one thing all of this – the surgeries, moving, everything – has really taught us is to be open to change,” Tamia said, with Grant adding, “I’ve noticed people move here and don’t move back.”
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Grant Hill – Having a Good Feeling
January 3rd, 2008By Jerry Brown
WASHINGTON — Dec. 8 Tonight against the Timberwolves, Grant Hill will play his 21st straight game for the Suns.
That might not sound like anything extraordinary. But for Hill, it will represent the longest regular-season run of health since he was a Detroit Piston eight years and a halfdozen surgeries ago. 
Not only is Hill playing, but he’s playing at a level few thought they would see again. Over the past 13 games, Hill was averaging 18 points and shooting 57 percent from the floor. His 3-pointers are starting to drop (7-for-13 over the past five games) and his athleticism belies his 35-year-old birth certificate — injury history or not.
To watch Hill flash from the deep corner to the hoop on one dribble or race ahead of the pack on the fast break is becoming more and more common.
“There have been a few moments here lately when I said, ‘Wow, that’s a move I haven’t made since Detroit.’ I can’t tell you how good that feels,” Hill said after collecting 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds in front of his dad, former NFL star Calvin Hill, and about a dozen other friends and family Friday night.
Hill grew up in nearby Reston and starred at South Lake High School before moving on to Duke and the NBA.
“I wanted to keep trying, keep coming back because I really felt like this was still there. And to play with players who are so talented, unselfish and enjoy playing together, with a guy like Steve (Nash) orchestrating … even if two or three guys are off on a given night, we have the firepower to keep going. I don’t know how teams go about preparing for that.”
New York Times – For Suns’ Hill, Quality Time, but Precious Little Quiet Time
December 6th, 2007By KAREN CROUSE
PHOENIX, Nov. 29 — It was a rare day off from basketball, but there was no rest for Suns forward Grant Hill. On a recent Saturday morning, Hill had seen his mother off to the airport and visited the barbershop. Now he was seated at the kitchen table, thumbing through the latest issue of Vanity Fair while cradling his crying 3-month-old daughter, Lael, in his lap.
Off in the corner, Hill’s other daughter, Myla, 5, sat in front of the computer, with the volume turned way up to drown out her squalling sister. His wife of eight years, Tamia, came to the rescue with a bottle. As he handed Lael to her, he said, “I do like the noise and the activity.” Read the rest of this entry »
East Valley Tribune – Article
December 6th, 2007
They were Phoenix’s two significant offseason veteran acquisitions — the two biggest reasons why the Suns felt like they were a better team than the one that walked off the floor in San Antonio last May feeling close, yet still short, of a title run.
And while they will cost Phoenix less than $3 million this year, Grant Hill and Brian Skinner have proven in the first 17 games their value will be far greater.
They were the first and second star in Sunday’s 115-104 win over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Hill took over the offense with nine of his season-high 28 points in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, and Skinner provided key defensive stops on big men Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry.
As a result, Phoenix took charge with an 11-0 run while Steve Nash and Amaré Stoudemire were resting on the bench — traditionally the white-knuckle portion of any game for Suns fans. Skinner was rewarded by staying on the floor the entire fourth quarter and showed some good chemistry playing alongside Stoudemire — something that turned coach Mike D’Antoni’s head and could lead to future combinations.
“It looks like they can play together because Amaré becomes the shooter,” said D’Antoni, who admittedly had doubts about such a grouping. “I’m feeling more comfortable with it every game. Now we have eight good guys in the rotation. We just have to figure out the minutes.” Read the rest of this entry »
Local Icon – Grant Hill featured on 101 North Magazine
December 6th, 2007
From the moment the Phoenix Suns announced that NBA player Grant Hill would be coming to the Valley, endless talk ensued. Some Orlando Magic fans felt that after seven tumultuous seasons with their team, the 6-foot-8 Hill owed them a championship.
Critics even wondered why teams such as the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Maverick would be interested in courting Hill given his long history of injuries. But when the 35-year-old hoop star made mention of an early retirement, people wondered if this good guy’s days were about to be numbered. Luckily for fans here, Hill signed a two-year deal with the Suns. With the new season under way, he has joined Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa and his other teammates on the court in their determined quest for a championship. Read the rest of this entry »
Grant Hill – Triple Double
December 6th, 2007
Creating a significant amount of buzz when he entered the league, Grant Hill was chosen as the third overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. The former Blue Devil shared the NBA Rookie of the Year Award with point guard Jason Kidd and made history as the first rookie to amass the most votes in the NBA All-Star balloting. Read the rest of this entry »
New York Times – Best Scoring game w/ Phoenix
December 4th, 2007NEW YORK – The Suns were expecting Grant Hill to be a valuable piece when they signed him a two-year deal at just more than the league minimum salary over the summer. But the bargain is getting bigger all the time.
In his best game with Phoenix, Hill scored a season-high 28 points Sunday, including the first nine of the fourth quarter, when the Suns turned a one-point lead into a boat race and ran away from the embattled Knicks 115-104 at a very testy Madison Square Garden.
“I’m feeling more and more comfortable with my role here and the way I can help us win,” said Hill, who’s happier with his decision to come West with every passing day. “Sometimes you need new scenery. Coming here is a great environment, great coaching staff and guys. It was a way to break away from all the ankle (injury) talk and my past and just concentrate on basketball and helping this team win.” Read the rest of this entry »
