Grant Hill :: essays research papers

In someway grant was a typical boy. He was energetic and playful. He liked to ride his dirt bike around the neighborhood. And, of course, he liked sports, especially soccer and basketball. For a while, he even had more soccer trophies then basketball. But, as he grew, he realized he had a better chance to excel on the basketball court. One sport Grant never played was football. Not because he didn’t want to, but because his father forbade him to play untill he was in high school. â€Å" I didn’t want him dealing with pressures of comparison,† said Calvin, his father. Even though he didn’t play football, Grant still had to deal with comparison. He was a shy and quiet child who never liked the idea of being special. He wanted to fade in the background, just be one of the gang. But that really wasn’t possible, everyone knew that Grant’s father was Calvin Hill, the greatest football player. Calvin was the NFL rookie of the year in 1969. â€Å"I’ve always wanted to blend in and be like everybody else,† Grant says. â€Å"I didn’t want anybody, especially my friends, thinking I was better then them. I just wanted to be a down-to-earth guy and have my own identity.† Like most other kids, Grant played pickup games with his friends. He worked on his moves in the driveway. Sometimes he’d fantasize about winning a big game with the last-second shot. He would video tape games, just so he could play them over and over again. He would sit in front of the television set and analyze the game. Grant would not only watch the ball but also watch the floor. He would notice if a player set a nice screen way from action, or worked particularly hard on defense. He became a true student of the game. When grant went to high school he was asked to play on the varsity team, but he was devastated, he told the coach he much rather play on the junior varsity team. Calvin had gotten a call from one of the assistant coaches about the decision to elevate grant to the varsity team. It was an unusual move – Grant was barely 14 years old. But Calvin felt his son could handle it. But suprisingly when Calvin told him the news he burst into tears. Grant did not want to be above his friends.