Hill repaying community for success

By Todd Archer, Post staff reporter

It is hot inside Xavier University's Schmidt Fieldhouse, but then again it always is. More than 100 kids are playing basketball, and Tyrone Hill sees himself in each kid who is attending his week-long basketball camp, whether the kid is tall, short, white or black.

He sees the kid that would talk back to the coaches if they missed a call; the kid who would take all the shots; the kid who did not pay attention.

''I used to pout,'' Hill said. ''I didn't want to play. I wanted to shoot all the time. I wore my shorts around my ankles like these guys. I was just like them.''

One day sticks out more than any other, one just as he was about to enter his sophomore year at Withrow High School. He was at XU for a summer camp, much like his own, and former University of Louisville star Derek Smith was lecturing.

Smith stopped his speech, pointed Hill out and told him right from wrong.

''I was a bad little kid,'' Hill said. ''You ask any of my friends and they'll tell you. I was a head case, even with my mom. That's just part of growing up.''

Hill, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound forward who just completed his sixth NBA season and his fourth with the Cleveland Cavaliers, has grown up considerably since then. He is one of two Musketeers to have his number retired (Byron Larkin is the other) and was named an NBA all-star three years ago.

While some athletes of Hill's stature forget their roots and move away to warmer climates, Hill, 29, embraces them.

''I grew up in Evanston,'' Hill said. ''This is home. All my friends are here. My mom and dad live here. I went to high school here. I went to college here. To the people here, I'm just Tyrone. There's no big deal about it. In other cities, people put you on a pedestal because you play in the NBA. The people here will recognize me, but it's not crazy.''

Hill is rebuilding an Evanston playground he grew up on, and said he hopes to have the basketball courts completed by the end of the summer.

''I want it to be a community, family-type thing,'' Hill said. ''Not just that we are fixing up a basketball court. There's going to be a track for the elderly to walk and a playground for little kids. I want it to be a place everyone goes to.''

He also is involved in the music business and his foundation will sponsor a night at the annual summer jazz festival in Cincinnati.

For the past six years Hill has run the basketball camp at XU, and it is one of his favorite events.

''It's a way of giving back to the kids,'' Hill said. ''It feels good to be in a position where you can have a camp like this and help out.''

Hill is beginning to work out for next season, though he said he will not touch a basketball until another week or so. Before the NBA draft, there were reports that Hill was trade bait, potentially heading to the Boston Celtics, but the Cavaliers ended up taking Stanford point guard Brevin Knight and University of Kentucky swingman Derek Anderson in the first round, leaving Hill as the team's power forward.

''I've heard some things, but there's nothing you can do about it,'' Hill said. ''I've been an all-star. I'm one of the top rebounders in the league. I get paid a lot of money. I've accomplished a lot of things in this game, but there's one thing I want. I want a championship.''

The Cavaliers missed the playoffs this past season, but Hill was just happy to be playing again. He missed three months of the 1995-96 season after a car accident left him paralyzed for some time.

''The scariest thing was that the doctors couldn't tell me what was wrong,'' Hill said. ''They couldn't pinpoint when I'd get better.''

Finally one day in the shower, Hill could feel the hot water against his face and he knew he would be able to play again. Slowly he rebounded into form, but never quite at the all-star level he earned the previous year.

''This year was about getting my legs back,'' he said. ''Everybody asked me if I was going to be an all-star again, but I didn't care about that. I just wanted to be the player I was before I got hurt.''

Hill saw signs of that, putting up his customary 12 points and roughly 10 rebounds a game. Early in the season he wondered how a minor accident could nearly end his career, though suffering no effects from the nightly pounding in the NBA.

''It took me a while to get over that,'' Hill said. ''I wondered if one hit would end it. It was scary.''

That is the message Hill would like to send the kids, just like the one Smith, who died last summer, passed on to Hill many years ago.

''We tell the kids that basketball is one thing,'' Hill said, ''but it's what you're going to do out in the real world that means more. Get an education. I got mine. (Former XU star) Brian Grant has his. That's the most important thing. It's OK to have goals and dreams as long as you go after them and give 100 percent.

''Don't let anyone tell you you can't do something.''

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In photo: Tyrone Hill works with kids at his annual basketball camp and hopes to pass on more than just basketball tips.

Publication date: 07-10-97