OAKLAND, CA — In 2004 Chauncey Billups helped the Detroit Pistons win an NBA Championship and cemented himself as a winner and leader. During his original tenure in Motown, he led the Pistons to six straight conference championships and two straight NBA Finals, made the All-Star and All-NBA Teams three times each, and was named to the All-Defense team twice.
The seventeen-year veteran now finds himself back on the squad that he once led to glory, albeit now with a reduced role, given the toll that injuries have taken on him in recent years.
On Tuesday before the game against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena Mark Jackson, a former seventeen-year point-guard veteran with a storied career in the NBA himself, said that Billups has made a strong case for the Basketball Hall Of Fame.
“He’s conducted himself in a way he should be proud of, in a way that has been an example for so many others,” Jackson said, “One thing about him you can very easily see him transitioning into a basketball role, whether it’d be coaching or running a team.”
Those were the very qualities that got Billups named to USA Basketball‘s 2010 World Championships team in Turkey, which he led to the gold medal.
“He was the voice on that team,” said Andre Iguodala after shootaround the morning before the Pistons/Warriors game, “I remember he got on me pretty tough one day and that’s when I knew he was a leader. I have great respect for him, great teammate, done everything in the game at a high level. For him to go on a run that they did with the Pistons, he’ll go down as one of the best point guards (in NBA history).”
As USA Today‘s Jeff Zillgitt wrote, USA Director Jerry Colangelo and Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski both had tremendous respect for what Billups brought to the table.
Zillgitt reported back in August of 2010:
“He’s been through every experience as a player, and he’s been successful,” Krzyzewski said. “He and I have a very close relationship, and we talk about the team all the time.”
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“Even though these guys are really good players on their NBA teams, this is just a different situation,” Krzyzewski said. “And having Chauncey there to settle everyone down, give confidence, know game situations, it’s invaluable.”
Confidence is something inherent in leadership and it’s something that he’s noticed with Stephen Curry.
“(Curry) didn’t really play that much (in Turkey in 2010), but the times that he did play, he played well,” Billups told me after last night’s game at Oracle, “Obviously, now he’s playing on a different level. His confidence is different. He’s a leader now.”
Billups exudes professionalism with his calm demeanor and acceptance of a reduced role, now in his second stint with the Pistons, on the first of a two-year contract worth $5 million.
“He’s obviously at the tail end. He’s on the ‘back nine’,” Jackson said, “but he continues to compete, play well, and lead. This is a guy that got hurt on the back nine. The great thing about it is, when he leaves it’s going to be on his terms. He’s done it the right way.”
The right way with humility and respect for the contributions of his teammates, and adhering to the old adage of “paying it forward“.
“I think all those guys (on 2010 Team USA) kind of looked up to me as the leader of the team. That was a great compliment then, but I think all those guys have a good impression of what I did and how I led,” Billups said, “Hopefully they’re all doing the same things now on their respective teams.”
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