ESPN: Chauncey Billups, the disposable superstar

ESPN - OTL: The Disposable Superstar - E-ticket

ENVER -- One of Chauncey Billups' ex-teammates -- and there are about a hundred of them -- has his nose pressed against a TV set. The Denver Nuggets have just called time, in the middle of a tight playoff game, and the ex-teammate can't help but notice Chauncey rounding up all the players, all the misfits and flakes, and poking a finger in their chests.

If only these Nuggets understood the history behind this -- because there are pieces of Chauncey Billups strewn all over the league. He might have just rescued George Karl's job and Carmelo Anthony's résumé, but don't be fooled: Billups was once a mystery himself. His eyes are wiser now and his scars are healed, but no elite player in these NBA playoffs has been kicked to the curb as often as he has. None spent their first five seasons on six different teams. None has suited up for 10 different coaches. None has been forced to spend a 12th NBA season revalidating himself.

In a league obsessed with LeBron, Kobe and D-Wade, Chauncey might actually be the one to emulate -- a sturdy playmaker who, mid-career, asked to be taught how to make plays. But now the journey ends where it began, a mile above sea level, with Chauncey teaching his own mercurial team how to pay attention to detail. It's why a zoo of an arena chants "MVP, MVP" in his direction. And it's why his former teammate from Minnesota, a friend he used to call "Unc," wishes he could jump through that TV screen, into that huddle … and tell the Nuggets the whole story. The whole story of "Smooth."

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Nice read. What a life for an NBA player. To think so many have wasted their opportunities. Even though he has been on so many teams, he is still very blessed to be an NBA player.

The part about Rip sobbing uncomtrollably is too much for me. I know Rip is emotional, but I wonder has he gotten over the trading of his best buddy. Didnt Joe know that those three were so close. Just reading this account, this trade was doomed from the beginning.

Yeah that article was a kick to the balls. I still can't get over trading him. I think that trade will set this franchise back at least 5 years. We had a pretty good group. Instead of building around it better, Joe thought he needed to blow it up. Trading Chauncey was such a big mistake. I can't believe how revered as that guy is/was by his teammates and his new teammates in Denver. The part about the day of the trade was especially hard to read. Man I can't believe that did that and thought it would work.

Pretty telling excerpt from the article:

The truth is, there's something right with Chauncey. He's like a psychologist to the NBA stars. On a night he's watching "Desperate Housewives" with Faye on Poplar Street, Hamilton calls from Detroit to complain about being benched. Hamilton goes on so long, Chauncey misses the whole hourlong episode. The Pistons are absolutely lost without him. Before he left, Chauncey had been Pistons head coach Michael Curry's truest ally, and even had hired Curry's sister-in-law to be his nanny. But, without Chauncey, Curry has no sergeants, no one to talk Rasheed Wallace off the ledge or lower Hamilton's blood pressure.

What's that cap space going to get us? We made a huge mistake here. Traded one of the best point guards in the game for cap space, however do we even know what we're getting? We won't be relevent for at least 5 years now and that sucks.

Read the article. It's posted in 3 placed on the forum now so I'm not sure which one to reply to, but here are a few of my thoughts:

1. I knew that LB had a profound influence on CB's game, but I had no idea that Terrell Brandon and Sam Mitchell put important fingerprints on it as well. This just reinforces for me how important coaching, as well as verteran players are to the development of young players.

People want to vilify Lindsey Hunter for "taking playing time" from young guards and jetison Sheed, but I think this type of thinking is a trap. Even sitting at the end of a bench playing a back-up role, players like these have a lot they can offer to the team.

2. The article went out of its way to apologize for CB's game falling off in the various ECF's, specifically the Boston series. It left out the other two flame-outs however, where CB was out-played by White Chocolate and Boobie Gibson. I thought he played very well against Boston considering his injury. (Everything I just wrote is going from my memory of the various ECF's)

3. Man was that trade mis-handled; that is if the report in the article is true. Did Joe even sit down with CB and let him know he was traded? Apprently he did so with Dice. And the bit about AI doesn't suprise me now, but at the time of the trade, I thought that he had moved past his partying ways. Obviously I was wrong, but did Pistons managment know this when they did the deal?

4. CB really brought a lot to this team and we should be thankful that he wore the Piston uni while he had this breakthrough in his game.

Overall I liked the article, and I still don't regret Joe making the trade. Change happens; you can either embrace it or fight to hold onto the old way. Piston management has a lot they can do better the next time around though. Hopefully they learned their lessons.

I thought this was a great article seeing as B-b-b-b-b-billups is one of my favorite Pistons and certainly my favorite of the current (or more appropriatly recent past) group, maybe even since Isiah. I just didn't like how the Pistons did him if indeed that's how it went down. He was part of the foundation that brought a championship (shoulda, woulda, coulda been back to back) to Detroit and it seems like they labeled him as the reason for the Pistons recent troubles with getting past the ECFs. Man I wish they woulda shipped Rip or Tay instead maybe even both for an expiring contract or a player like Bosh. My only hope is that through some streak of luck/good basketball he gets another 'ship with Denver. How sweet an ending to an article like that would it be for him to bring a title to his home town?

I appreciate the response and respect what you say. I just hated that trade, it destroyed that team. I think Joe gets a free pass from a lot of people (not pointing towards you as I don't know how you feel about him) for whatever reason. He's the guy that has botched draft after draft and fired coach after coach. If he just knew how to draft or manage a coach, we could have won 2-3 titles.

I was going to post essentially the same thing.

I'm happy for Chauncey. I like the guy and he's brought me a lot of good memories as a Pistons fan. I'm happy that Joe was able to facilitate him being able to come back home to Denver.

And I'm also happy to see that our Pistons are in a pretty good position to rebuild for the present/future.

My fear is that we are trusting Dumars with all this. He has shown that he can't manage a draft so I'm not sure why I trust him to bring in difference makers. This guy gave Amir Johnson an extention and signed Kwame Brown (and gave him an option).

I think if the Pistons are going to be rebuilt, its going to be through trades or free agency rather than the draft. Look at the pieces of this current team and how they were acquired:

Sheed: trade
Ben: trade
Dice: FA
CB: FA
Rip: trade
Tay: draft
Corliss: trade
LH: trade
Mike James: trade
Memo: draft

Not many draft picks.

I'm OK with this method personally. I feel that trying to build a winner by getting a bunch of draft picks has a low percentage of success. A lot of teams (Knicks, Bulls, Boston before recent trades, Denver before Melo, etc) were very bad for a very long time trying to build through the draft.

The articles I read regarding the trade, to the deaths of Pistons icons, to Joe Dumars' ineptitude, to even that screencap of the side by side Billups-Iverson comparision gives me hope for the future:

that a single year can't POSSIBLY get any worse...

My belly hurts. :P

More slaps to the face of Joe Dumars.

I think that part of the problem is that Chaunce was doing a lot of things behind the scenes and on a player-to-player level and Joe didn't fully realize that they were being done. Also, I think that CB's humble approach was mistaken for being laid back.

Very good article.

Stuff like this is similar to the trade/cap space. Sure right now it looks like Joe hasn't added to the roster, but what about a few years from now when Walter Sharpe is an All Star?

Make Joe Dumars the head Coach and Billups the President / GM...