Billups Remembered For His Mr. Big Shot Personality, As Jersey Is Raised
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
No one wanted any part of him during his playing days. Chauncey Billups nailed game-winning shots in opponents' faces like he was passing them in a hallway. He was cold-blooded, vicious. He was that guy that ticked off the players opposite him, because he could take them down so effortlessly and look so cool-headed while doing it.
But at the end of the day – at the end of his career – Billups was respected. Those who played with him and against him knew what he was about. And that cold-blooded ability, the steady presence and leadership were all celebrated Wednesday night, as Billups' jersey was lifted to the Palace of Auburn Hills' rafters at halftime of the Pistons' 103-92 loss to Denver.
"Every time I came off a screen, every time I was running around like a wild animal, you put that ball right in a position where I could score," said Rip Hamilton, who shared the backcourt with Billups during Detroit's 2004 championship season.
Hamilton, speaking at Billups' halftime ceremony on Wednesday, told the story of how both of them would lie on the court together during pregame stretches and look up to the rafters at the numbers already retired at the Palace.
"We would always look up and say our goal is to do what Isiah (Thomas) and Joe (Dumars) did, and that's bring a championship to Detroit," Hamilton said. And even after that trophy came to Detroit in 2004 – with Billups being named Finals MVP – Billups' impact lived on.
"My kids asked me what's the definition of a role model," Hamilton said. "I pulled your picture up and showed them you."
Billups' leadership on the court and off it during that championship season was a crucial piece to the puzzle. And it was what his teammates and fans most remembered.
Several were there, in another reunion after the first they had in January during Ben Wallace's own jersey retirement ceremony. Hamilton, "Wallace squared" (Ben and Rasheed), Tayshaun Prince, Mehmet Okur and Antonio McDyess were all there.
Dave Bing, the former Piston and former Detroit mayor, called Billups "the leader that took that team from where they were to where they got," lamenting the fact he never got to play alongside him.
Billups was the needle moving a team that, for a stretch, was dominant in the Eastern Conference. Led by Billups' steady hand, the Pistons made the Eastern Conference finals six straight years from 2003-08, including that NBA title in 2004.
Dwyane Wade, speaking in a tribute video played during Wednesday's game, said his Heat team constantly looked toward Billups and Detroit as their own bar for success.
"Y'all was the barometer for this team for many years and we knew to get where we wanted to get, we had to get to your level," Wade said, before adding, "I didn't appreciate all the shots you hit in my face."
Those shots – those icy halfcourt swishes and the three-point bombs – were featured heavily in the highlight videos played before Billups' jersey was finally raised.
And they'll feature heavily in how Billups will be remembered the rest of his life.
"Mr. Big Shot, Chauncey Billups, what can I say?" quipped Kobe Bryant in his own Billups tribute video. "I guess we've come a long way when I can sit here and congratulate you guys when you took a championship away from me and Los Angeles."
