Poor Sports:
Celebrating the Worst in Athletics

by Jeff Hause

"Orlando good... Detroit bad... Amway Rice Crispy Snack delicious... Must eat more crispy snacks..."

"Amway, the nation's second-largest direct sales company, [is] the 'quintessential quasi-religious' corporation." --"The Gospel According To Amway," Sunday Punch, 1/4/87 '60 MINUTES': "People who want to make it in Amway are told to buy the books and tapes and other motivating tools that will teach them how to do it. The market in these items runs into millions of dollars a year." DETROIT NEWS, 7/5/2000: "On Hill's lap sat a book, one he was about to begin reading. Titled Hope from my Heart -- 10 Lessons for Life, it was written by Amway leader Rich DeVos, owner of the Orlando Magic."

Grant Hill always said Joe Dumars was like a dad to him. He grew up idolizing Dumars on the Detroit Pistons because of his class and All-Star play. Then six years ago, the Pistons drafted Hill as the third player in the draft. Dumars became Hill's mentor. After a couple of years, Dumars officially called the Pistons Hill's team--like a father handing down the family business to a son. Hill bought a house nextdoor to Dumars in Michigan. Dumars finally retired in 1999. And then in June of 2000, Dumars was put in charge of the entire organization.

Dumars' first job: to re-sign Hill. Dumars expressed every confidence that Hill would be coming back to the Pistons.

Last season, Hill averaged 25.8 points per game, third-best in the NBA. He averaged 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists. He and Tim Duncan were considered the most prized free agents on the market.

The Pistons had hoped they could keep him by promoting Dumars last month and by their ability to make Hill a larger offer than other teams could -- $115 million for eight years.

The only thing that worried Dumars was the rumor that Hill could go to San Antonio to play with Tim Duncan. They were friends and shared the same lawyer, who negotiated all their deals. The Pistons worried that the idea of playing beside Duncan could be too strong for Hill--and for Hill's lawyer.

According to The Sporting News, Grant Hill told Dumars three times over the preceding few months that he would re-sign with the Detroit Pistons.

Still, Dumars warned him that after July first, when other teams were allowed to approach free agents, there would be suitors filling his head with flowery promises and impossible riches. But the Pistons could offer Grant $47 million more than any other team, thanks to NBA salary cap scales. The best another team could offer him was a six-year deal worth $67 million. The Pistons, however, could offer a seven-year deal worth $82 million. And he could work with his mentor, Dumars, to create a serious NBA contender. Grant said he understood.

While July first was the first day free agents could negotiate with teams, no contracts could be signed until August 1. Practically every team in the league was ready to offer Hill anything that he wanted during that month.

Dumars counted on intense bidding for his star player. He counted on lying; on cheating... but he never counted on AMWAY.

STEP #1 -- SLEEP DEPRIVATION: On 12:01 AM on July first, the phone rang in the Hill household. It was the Orlando Magic, owned by Amway leader Rich DeVos. A jet was waiting to take him to Orlando. Tim Duncan would be there, too.

Saturday morning, Hill arrived at Orlando International Airport almost simultaneously with Tim Duncan. Hill arrived on crutches, still nursing a broken left foot (the painkillers making him more susceptble to mind control tactics). Although the NBA prohibited the Magic from using private jets to deliver the free agents to Orlando, there was a limousine awaiting each on the tarmac to start their tour.

"Big Brothers are watching you" (paraphrased from 1984)

STEP #2 -- MIND CONTROL/THE POWER OF SUGGESTION: Hill and his wife Tamia stepped off the plane to see giant banners on the walls around them. The banners showed Hill and Duncan wearing Magic uniforms. They said "IMAGINE." The message was everywhere: On the Magic's private airport hangar--"Imagine." At the team's practice facility, plastered across the gymnasium wall--"Imagine." And another 500 times during their tour because every Magic employee and every person working out at the RDV Sportsplex on Saturday--even the children in the baby-sitting room--was wearing the image on a T-shirt. "Imagine... Imagine... Imagine." Like a hypnotic spell, the word was reprinted everywhere. Hill had been up since midnight the night before. He stared at the word, over and over, as if in a trance. The mind-control tactics were better than those in The Manchurian Candidate.

Duncan and Hill were immediately taken by limo across the airport grounds to the Magic's private hangar, where Magic owner Rich DeVos was awaiting, proudly showing them the Magic's posh team plane. "Imagine..."

Amway founder DeVol told Hill and Duncan that if they joined the Magic, they could recruit their friends (an Amway doctrine), and that riches and championships would follow. "Imagine..."

STEP #3 -- CONTROL FOOD; CONTROL ENVIRONMENT: The players then toured the Magic facilities and the Sportsplex with Magic General Manager John Gabriel, Chief Operating Officer John Weisbrod and coach Doc Rivers. The players were housed in penthouse suites, wined and dined at a Disney-area restaurant and given a VIP tour of Epcot. "Imagine..."

On Sunday, they spent the day looking at real estate in the Isleworth area and attended a Magic cookout. They told Hill he could move away from the mansion near the home of Joe Dumars to live next to Tiger Woods. "Imagine..."

Hill was due back on Monday. But Hill missed his flight. Why? Dumars couldn't imagine...

STEP #4 -- ISOLATION/CONTEMPLATION: Dumars waited patiently for Hill's return, ready to offer him whatever he wanted. But Hill didn't return. Grant bypassed his flight home to Detroit on Monday afternoon so he and his wife could house-hunt in Central Florida.

On Tuesday Hill finally flew home, reading Hope from my Heart -- 10 Lessons for Life, written by Amway founder Rich DeVos, the Magic's owner, while sitting in first class. Also on the plane was Detroit News reporter Bob Wojnowski. Hill told him that he now intended to play for the Magic. Whether Duncan was going to sign with him or not didn't matter anymore.

The Spurs, Knicks, Net, Bulls and Heat all sent representatives to talk to Hill in the next two days, but he showed no interest in any other team, whether they were title contenders, had as much salary to offer as the Magic, or in the case of the Spurs, actually HAD Tim Duncan, who Grant had originally declared was the only player he'd leave the Pistons for.

STEP #5 -- AVOID INTERVENTIONS: Meanwhile, Joe Dumars rescheduled his travel plans to Wimbledon, waiting two days to meet with Hill and try to persuade him to stay in Detroit. But Dumars left his office on Thursday afternoon still without hearing one word from Hill since the previous Friday.

Finally, late Thursday night. Dumars' phone rang. It was Grant Hill. Hill lived just down the street from Joe and could have walked over, but he felt it was better to deliver the news over the phone.

He was not going to stay a Piston, as he had promised Joe before. He was going to be with his new family in Orlando.

There would be no interventions, no tearful family reunions. Like a new religious recruit, Grant Hill was leaving to join his new family. Whether he tried to sell Dumars the book by DeVos is not known.

Hill told WDFN in Detroit on Friday that he handled some things badly, and it was in the NBA's best interest to close salary cap loopholes that allow players like him to move so freely from team to team, because it hurts competition, it hurts the small markets, and it hurts the fans.

Preach on, brother. And how bad will the team of his former mentor/father Joe Dumars be next year? You can just "imagine..."

7/7/2000