By Brad G. Faye, Suns.com

While to professional sports organizations it has always been the name on the jersey which matters most, for many professional athletes, the number has at times appeared to be just as important.

Since his days playing at Duke University, new Suns forward Grant Hill has always worn the No. 33. It wasn’t necessarily his first choice, but a number he grew more than accustomed to over the years nonetheless.

Four long years of rehab and surgeries and waiting and worrying were pure agony for Grant Hill. He never knew when—or if—he would return to the basketball court, and if he did, whether he could be effective again. For some players, four years are an entire NBA career; for Hill, it was an interlude. A productive interlude.

Instead of wasting his time, Hill took it upon himself to learn. He watched basketball from a different perspective. And he threw himself into the business world with the goal of developing his commercial interests as thoroughly as possible.