Pistons' Arnie Kander, surgeon not responding to Grant Hill's remarks

The Pistons are not commenting on the recent comments Grant Hill made about the foot injury and subsequent treatment he received from the Pistons and Orlando Magic medical staffs during the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons.

Robert Teitge, the team's orthopedic surgeon when Hill was a Piston, did not return two phone calls from the Free Press, and Arnie Kander, the team's strength and conditioning coach, was advised not to speak on the matter by current management with the potential sale of the team pending.

"The health of our players is and always has been the No. 1 priority of our organization," said Kevin Grigg, the team's vice president of public relations.

In a FoxSports.com story last week, Hill said: "There was a standard in Detroit and that standard was Isiah (Thomas). He grew up in Chicago. He was tough. He played hurt. He had that great game against the Lakers in the (NBA) Finals (on a twisted ankle).

"He was the face of the franchise, and I'm sort of the exact opposite. I'm sure there were Isiah supporters within the organization. Who knows? I can only speculate. But it was like no matter what I did, it wasn't as good as Isiah."

Hill told Fox Sports he returned to action too soon in Orlando, which created more problems for him, resulting in more surgeries and a staph infection that nearly killed him.

"The next day the doctor who performed (my) surgery picks the paper up and saw that I played like 30 minutes and he was irate," Hill said about his first game back. "I wasn't supposed to be on the court doing basketball-related activity until December.

"I don't think it was a conspiracy that, 'Hey, we gotta get him out there.' Someone just didn't read the protocol, which is crazy. You invest $92 million in somebody. ... I just kept thinking, 'I can't believe how poorly mismanaged this has been.' "