I'm a fan of Grant Hill (who isn't?), and I liked this article, so I decided to post it:

BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Cheer for the man. And not just a polite, "nice-to-see-you-again" cheer. When Grant Hill is introduced at the Palace tonight, give him one of the warmest, loudest cheers you've ever given an opposing player.

It sounds strange, I know. When Hill left for Orlando five years ago, Pistons fans marked the date of his scheduled return and practiced booing.

Now he's finally back. But who could boo Grant Hill now? After four lost seasons, Hill is playing like an All-Star again.

It is the feel-good story of the NBA season. Booing him wouldn't be the ugliest scene at the Palace this season (ahem), but it would be appalling.

All Hill did "wrong" was A.) Act like he would probably re-sign with the Pistons and, B.) Leave for Orlando. A lot of people here took that personally.

Joe Dumars is not one of them.

"It just amazes me when people try to imply that he and I stopped being friends because he left," said Dumars, the Pistons' president of basketball operations. "This is a guy that I have always pulled for. He and I are still very good friends because we both understood it was never personal, just a basketball decision he made."

Look, let's say your girlfriend left you for somebody else. Of course you'd be angry. But if you soon met the woman of your dreams and married her, and then your ex-girlfriend got sick and almost died, and her new boyfriend also got sick, and she struggled in her career like Paris Hilton on the entrance exam for men, and then she started to put her life back together and you ran into her on the street, would you still be angry?

I'd like to think most of us would say, "Good to see you. Glad you're doing better."

The fact is that Hill had good reasons for leaving. His Pistons were not the championship Pistons we know today. The franchise was dysfunctional. In six years, he played for four coaches and with too many teammates who weren't talented enough, didn't understand how to win, or both.

For most of that time, the only thing this franchise had going for it was Grant Hill.

Yet Hill never demanded a trade. He didn't sulk. He never took a million shots just so he could win the scoring title. He always played to win. Even with his contract expiring, he played hurt.

And when he became a free agent, he left. It made sense to most people in the NBA. Even Dumars.

"I think Grant felt that Orlando was further along in becoming contenders than the Pistons were at that time, and he made the decision to leave," Dumars said. "I always understood that."

Admittedly, a lot of Pistons fans were upset with how Hill left. He always seemed like he would come back. People in the organization believed that.

And maybe Hill was too concerned with his image and with pleasing everybody. He told some people what they wanted to hear. Well, if the worst thing you can say about somebody is he told people what they wanted to hear, you're dealing with a pretty good guy, especially in the NBA.

Hill was never supposed to be just a pretty good guy. When he came out of Duke, he was marketed as Mr. Perfect. GQ famously put him on its cover with the billing, "Can Grant Hill Save Sports?" But if you think Hill is an example of an NBA player who sold a false image to the public, I have two words for you: Kobe Bryant.

Here's another comparison: Jerry Stackhouse. Folks here still love Stackhouse, even though he was a me-first player. Stackhouse wanted to score more than win, so he had to be traded. Hill wanted to win more than score, so he left for Orlando.

Which attitude should really bother you?

Grant Hill couldn't save sports, not that sports really needed to be saved. He couldn't even save the Pistons.

But he played a lot of great basketball here, is considered one of the nicest people in the NBA, and he worked his butt off to come back when the whole league thought he was done, even though his contract was guaranteed either way. If that's not worth cheering, I don't know why we watch sports.