Tim Povtak of the Orlando Sentinel reports: As much as he tries to downplay the issue now -- time has passed, faces have changed, new priorities have emerged -- Grant Hill is going to feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up tonight when he steps on the court.

The Detroit Pistons need to pay for what they said.

Instead of wishing him well after he carried them through some lean years, the Pistons delivered some parting shots that still ring in Hill's ears, even though he has tried to block them out.

Pistons President Tom Wilson told him not to let the door hit him on the way out. Former coach George Irvine questioned his leadership. Current Pistons star Jerry Stackhouse said that Hill always was holding him back, questioning his toughness.

This was after he played a first-round playoff series against Miami with a broken bone in his left ankle, the one that needed two surgeries to fix.

Hill wanted to leave for Orlando -- and a seven-year $92 million deal -- because he didn't believe the Pistons would ever escape mediocrity.

"When somebody leaves, feelings are sometimes going to be hurt. And I understand that, but that chapter of my life has been closed, and it's time to open a new one," said Hill. "Maybe there's something there. I don't know. Where there is smoke, sometimes there is fire, but all that talk, it didn't bother me."