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Orlando Magic History: What If Grant Hill Stayed Healthy? cover image

Orlando Magic History: What If Grant Hill Stayed Healthy?

Jeremy Brener
Aug 7, 2022
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It's a great time to reflect.

ORLANDO - The Orlando Magic had a pretty clear and strong plan at the turn of the century in how to revive the franchise.

After finishing .500 and missing the playoffs in 2000, the team knew it needed to be bold in free agency. That's why the team signed Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady, two of the league's biggest free agents, that summer. The team was also nearly able to bring Tim Duncan into the fold and could have made one of the league's most dominant trios.

However, things didn't work out the way it was intended. Hill's injuries kept him sidelined for most of his Magic tenure and was dynamic enough to be named the biggest "What If" moment in franchise history according to Bleacher Report.

Bleacher Report asked Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel to detail why this moment is looked back upon the way it is ...

"What if Grant Hill and the Magic were able to get a better handle on his ankle injuries earlier? The Magic acquired Hill, who started battling with injuries in 2000 while he was on the Detroit Pistons, with the hope that he and Tracy McGrady could revive the franchise after the Shaquille O'Neal-Penny Hardaway era ended," he wrote. "That didn't materialize. Hill played only four games in his first season in Orlando, 14 in his second, 29 in his third and none in his fourth. By the time he was healthy, the Magic had traded McGrady to the Rockets and were rebuilding around Dwight Howard."

The idea was right, but the execution was not. Ultimately, Hill's injuries define most of his career in Orlando, but given what he had shown in the 1990s with the Detroit Pistons, he could have been half of the most talented pair in the NBA, challenging Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal for that honor.

However, the cookie crumbled the way it did and Magic fans are left asking ... what if?