"Like models and dancers, athletes' careers usually fade to dark before the athlete is ready to leave the bright lights.

It can be trying for the superstar to handle the aging he can't see or accept, just as Allen Iverson hastily exited this year.

That is what makes the renaissance of Grant Hill's career in Phoenix remarkable. He reinvented himself, like a chameleon blending into his desert.

Hill came to Phoenix in 2007 on the first of two contracts that have paid him $6.8 million in three years - after he had collected $16.9 million for his final season in Orlando. That was the megastar contract that put him into nine-figure career earnings, money for finishing third in the 1997 MVP voting, All-Star honors and a load of 19 shots per game for his final Detroit season."