Hill sets deadline on ankle By Brian Schmitz | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted September 9, 2003 Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill said Monday that if he is going to play at all this season, he'll likely need to receive a medical clearance by no later than February. The Magic's regular season will end April 14. Playoff rosters are set shortly after that. "I'm hoping I can be back by February. That would be ideal," Hill said. "If he [the doctor] said, 'Now, Grant, you can go on the court. You can do monitored workouts, you can gradually build . . ." "Assuming everything checks out OK, yeah. That would be in a perfect world." Hill's world has been anything but perfect since joining the Magic in the summer of 2000. He has had four surgeries on his left ankle, the latest -- and most involved -- in mid-March. He has played 47 games. Hill, speaking at a news conference Monday at the RDV Sportsplex, said his next checkup with Dr. James Nunley of the Duke University Medical Center will be sometime in October. Hill, 30, has been off crutches for six weeks but has not started jogging or running. His workouts have been limited to non-weight-bearing exercises in a swimming pool. Hill also realizes he may have to sit out the entire season but said, "I'm training with the intention that I'm coming back." "I'm sure there's going to be a progression," Hill said of his rehab once, and if, he gets the medical green light. "I would assume I'm going to need time from jogging to NBA play. There's going to be a transition. I'd want time to get confident, to get strength, to do testing . . . make sure we all feel comfortable with it going in. "It could be two or three months to gradually building up to where, at some point, I'm ready to throw myself out there at a high level." A request to interview Nunley, who performed the last surgery on Hill, was denied Monday by a spokesperson for the Duke University Medical Center. Said the spokesperson through an e-mail, "As with other patients, he [Dr. Nunley] prefers not to talk about a patient's care without consent to do so. Also, with the federal HIPAA statute going into effect in April, physicians cannot reveal patient information unless that patient has signed a form permitting the physician to do so. I'm sorry."
