Chauncey Billups will join the Pantheon with Vince Carter. For the champion and MVP of the 2004 Finals, this entry into the Basketball Pantheon validates his journey, which is not always easy.
Drafted third overall by Boston in 1997, the playmaker admits he actually wasn't ready for the Big League. After dominating the competition in his native Colorado, the step was too high in the NBA, facing bigger and stronger players. It was only after a few years that he managed to establish himself, working a lot during his seasons with Wolves to erase his flaws, to dribble better and create space on his shot.
“When I got to Detroit, I was finally ready to run the game, I understood it and I knew how to play the position”explains Chauncey Billups at Andscape. “I was ready at that point. Once there, I never looked back. It was finished. I understood. »
So it took Chauncey Billups six seasons to understand… and land on the right team.
The perfect marriage with the Pistons
“We were working. We did our best, then we went home. No pomp, no glitter, none of that.” he recalls about this group. “That’s also Detroit, it’s the identity of this city and its supporters. It was a perfect cocktail. That's how Ben Wallace, our leader, was when I arrived, and that's how I am as well. So it really was a perfect marriage.”
With Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace, but also Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace, this team of vengeful players will become a very strong place in the Eastern Conference, reaching the conference finals six times in a row, between 2003 and 2008, for a title (2004) and a lost final (2005).
“I wasn't a player looking for statistics, I wasn't going to score 35 points or shoot 25 points and 10 assists” recalls the leader, best known for the solidity he brought. “I wasn’t that type of player. The problem is that most guys don't think they can achieve their goals and get paid by playing the right way. When I say 'play the right way', I mean play for the team. I wasn't playing to make the All-Star Game [ou] to be on the cover of ESPN Magazine. I played to try to win and make my teammates better. And it was by doing that that I managed to be an All-Star. I won a title playing that way. I entered the Pantheon playing this way. »
