Solomon Hill on his NBA bubble experience, and what he feels sets the Miami Heat apart
Solomon Hill found himself outside of the rotation for the first 12 games of the Miami Heat’s playoff run. Then all of a sudden, Hill was on the court playing in the Eastern Conference finals.
Hill, a 29-year-old forward, was scoreless in four minutes in the Heat’s Game 4 win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. It marked his first minutes this postseason and his first playoff minutes since May 8, 2018, as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.
The playing time might have come as a surprise to some, but not to Hill.
“I spoke with coach [Erik Spoelstra],” Hill said in advance of Friday night’s Game 5 of the East finals. “He just made some points and was just like, ‘There may be an opportunity for a couple minutes in both halves for you to get in there.’ I’m down. I told coach, ‘It could be the last possession of the game and I just go in on defense.’ When you want to win something, it’s about something bigger than me. I can’t be an honest man if I told you I wanted to win an NBA championship and then I can’t do what the coaches ask me and I want to win on my terms.”
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Spoelstra shortened the Heat’s rotation in Game 4, with Tyler Herro, Andre Iguodala and Hill as the only reserves used as part of an eight-man rotation. Derrick Jones Jr., Kendrick Nunn and Kelly Olynyk did not play Wednesday.
“I have respect and confidence in everybody on our bench. It might be a little bit different [in Game 5],” Spoelstra said. “That’s just the way we went [in Game 4]. Solo has really been working behind the scenes. One of my favorite parts of this whole bubble experience is just seeing the guys work. ... Solo has been one of those guys. You can see it, he has transformed his body. He’s in great shape. He’s a veteran. He has been in a lot of these experiences before.”
That doesn’t mean life in the NBA’s Disney bubble has been easy for Hill, who is separated from his daughter and pregnant wife. Hill and his wife are expecting their first son to be born within the next few weeks.
“Just try to play it by ear, honestly,” Hill said of his approach to the possibility of his son being born during the Heat’s playoff run. “... The most important thing to me is her safety. That’s the key and her ability to know that I’m still there. We do have FaceTime and all the communication tools that we have now today. But she understands. ... I can’t turn off the mode that I’m in, and I love the detail and everything that we’re doing here. I feel like I want to ride it out as long as I possibly can.”
Then there’s everything else that’s happening outside of the NBA bubble, with a Louisville, Kentucky, grand jury indicting one of the three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor on Wednesday. Officer Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment, and none of the three wanton endangerment charges against Hankison were related to Taylor’s death.
As part of the plan to resume the season at Disney following the March shutdown, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association came to an agreement that “the goal of the season restart will be to find tangible and sustainable ways to address racial inequality across the country.”
NBA players and coaches have demanded and continue to demand justice for Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician who was shot and killed in Louisville in March after police officers executed a no-knock warrant at her apartment related to a narcotics investigation.
“I think it’s a big thing that you want people to know that this isn’t something new,” said Hill, who wants to pursue a doctorate degree in “something within the realms of the Black experience” when he’s done playing in the NBA. “This isn’t anything out of the ordinary. It’s just the fact that it’s televised, it’s on camera. With the invention of the cellphone, we have been able to televise the wrongdoings that have been happening in our home. America is our home. So it’s different. It’s very different at this moment because I’m by myself. I’ve been by myself in a quarantined situation.
“It’s different because everything is basketball here. There’s no relief from it. It was weird after Game 3, as soon as I get on the elevator, there’s [Celtics] coach Brad Stevens. You’re just reminded of basketball. When you go back to your room, it’s on the TV. It’s everywhere. You go in the hallway, it’s just basketball. So it has been different. My experience in this has been different.”
Hill was traded to the Heat along with Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala to the Heat in February. Hill, who will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, spent the first part of the season with the Memphis Grizzlies where he averaged 5.7 points, three rebounds and two assists in 48 games.
Hill’s playing time has been limited since he arrived to the Heat, but he’s making the most of the experience while remaining ready. He singled out veterans Udonis Haslem and Iguodala as two teammates he has leaned on in recent months.
It also helps that Hill and the Heat entered Game 5 against the Celtics just one victory from clinching a spot in the NBA Finals.
“What Miami prepares you for is for every day,” Hill said. “They’re basically going to invest into you every single day consistently. That’s what you want. As an NBA player, you want somebody that’s going to invest in your development. The Miami Heat for me has been huge because it’s easy to go the other way when you’re not playing. It’s easy to put on weight and it’s easy to not feel active or not ready to play. But with Miami, one through however many people we can have on the team is going to be ready.
“I was telling some of the young guys, ‘Take this in because it’s not in the details with a lot of places.’ ... I can’t speak for everybody’s experiences, but this is one of the times I’ve felt that everybody wants success for everybody. We’ve worked hard together and we all understand everybody’s sacrifice that we want it all for each other.”
