DETROIT — On the 2:39 mark of the primary quarter, the Portland Path Blazers’ Toumani Camara threw up an ill-advised heave from half court docket as time expired on the shot clock. His try led to an embarrassing air-ball, which prompted followers at Little Caesars Area to mock him.
Chauncey Billups instantly referred to as for a timeout and walked straight over to Camara, clapping his arms to encourage his younger ahead after the cringeworthy mishap.
Throughout his six-plus seasons as their star level guard, followers of the Detroit Pistons have seen Billups encourage a number of younger gamers. Nevertheless, the management he displayed throughout his Corridor of Fame tenure in Detroit has change into the muse throughout his four-year teaching profession on the helm in Portland.
“Him as a person, I think he just talks to us regularly — it’s kind of like a big bro type of thing,” Blazers guard Scoot Henderson stated Monday. “He respects us and our crafts. He knows how it is to be a professional athlete in this league and the ups and downs that come with it.”
Being a head coach at all times appeared inevitable for Billups. Throughout his profession with the Pistons, he displayed all of the intangibles of a coach, which is one motive for the love the franchise confirmed him on Monday, the night time they honored his Corridor of Fame enshrinement.
Regardless of having all the traits, Billups sought recommendation from a handful of present and former coaches after the Blazers employed him in June 2021. One of many coaches Billups contacted was J.B. Bickerstaff.
His longing to hunt Bickerstaff’s recommendation stemmed from their shut relationship as adolescents in Denver. They have been AAU teammates and have become rivals in highschool.
As a participant who turned a McDonald’s All-America choice (1995) and Mr. Basketball in Colorado for 3 consecutive years (1993-95), Bickerstaff appreciated that Billups’ success had by no means modified him.
“We’re close,” Bickerstaff stated. “We felt like he was the guy that was putting Colorado basketball on the map. The early up-and-down in his NBA career, and then on to the Hall of Fame level of his career. He never treated us any differently through all of that stuff. And he was always a guy that you could count on. You could always depend on him.”
As a local of Colorado, Bickerstaff stated that everybody wished to “emulate” Billups through the early to mid-Nineteen Nineties. Three many years later, Billups discovered himself hoping to emulate the traits that led to Bickerstaff establishing himself as one of many NBA’s most esteemed coaches.
“He has wealth of knowledge — he comes from it, and he was born into it,” Billups stated. “He coaches well beyond his years of experience because he has been in it his entire life. … As kids in the neighborhood, we all looked at him as ‘This is Bernie’s (Bickerstaff) son,’ but he never acted like it. He was just a normal dude that we all appreciated and loved about him. It has always been that way.”
Billups has not skilled a lot success throughout his first 4 years as coach of the Blazers.
On an evening when the Pistons celebrated him for his accomplishments on the court docket, every tribute was additionally a testomony that Billups nonetheless possesses the identical attributes that might make the subsequent section of his basketball profession simply as memorable.
“Chauncey is obviously one of the greatest point guards to play the game and one of the greatest leaders,” Henderson stated. “Having him as a mentor has been good. Just knowing that he went through certain things during his younger years keeps me motivated to keep grinding and establish myself as a dog in this league.”