INDIANAPOLIS — Just this month, Chauncey Billups had a fortuitous opportunity to visit his parents during the NBA season and spend quality time in the city he still fondly considers a home.
The Portland Trail Blazers were in Denver for two consecutive games with a Saturday off inbetween. Their coach sure wasn’t complaining.
“I’ve got a lot of family I can go see,” he said. “Spend some time with my folks. Pretty cool.”
Billups, a Denver native and former Nuggets guard for two stints, was named a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night. The current Blazers coach was among 14 finalists for the 2024 class. Inductees will be announced April 6 at the NCAA Men’s Final Four in Phoenix.
Billups, 47, excelled in a 17-year playing career in which he won NBA Finals MVP for leading the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 championship over the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a three-time All-NBA selection, two-time All-Defensive team selection and five-time All-Star, playing for the Celtics, Raptors, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Pistons, Knicks and Clippers.
Billups attended George Washington High School and the University of Colorado before getting drafted third overall in 1997. In two stints with his hometown team across five total seasons, he averaged 16.9 points and 5.3 assists. He was part of the Nuggets team that made the 2009 Western Conference Finals.
His Denver pride even extended to his reaction when the Nuggets won their first title in franchise history last summer. Billups was already coaching Portland, a conference foe, at that point.
“I was so happy for the Nuggets and for the city, for the fanbase. I mean, I was once here trying to do that and bring that championship to the city as a Nugget,” he said. “So, for them to get over the hump like that, I was just happy and proud. I was proud of them.”
The seven NBA players named finalists Friday were Billups, Vince Carter, Michael Cooper, Walter Davis, Seimone Augustus, Dick Barnett and Michele Timms. The NBA shares a Hall of Fame with the rest of its sport, honoring accomplishments in men’s and women’s basketball, as well as international competition.
There are eight players who appeared in 100 or more games with the Nuggets celebrated in the Naismith Hall of Fame: Dan Issel, Bobby Jones, David Thompson, George McGinnis, Charlie Scott, Alex English, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson.
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