Five years from now, when Chauncey Billups is in an NBA team’s front office, a young player will ask for his advice and a head coach will use his game as a lesson.
They will illuminate his ability to run a team, his ease at leading both on and off the court, his willingness to take the big shot late in games, his over-arching will to win and the Annie Oakley-like precision in which he got it done.
Those are all good things to know, to study and emulate.
But they will be missing the best lesson of them all.
Perseverance.
The ability to suffer repeated disappointments, to never quite fit in, and to keep pushing through it was Billups’ best trait.
The biggest shot the former George Washington High School and University of Colorado star ever took was in crunchtime of his own career. He bet on himself in the eleventh hour and hit the mark. Because if he never would have made it long enough for Detroit to acquire him, everything that came after that never would happened.
And for every young player now, it’s the first and most important lesson to absorb.
“He got traded, he got traded, he got traded,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “It wasn’t easy for Chauncey Billups, it wasn’t easy. Everybody wants instant gratification. They want things yesterday. He is a great example of: It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Malone wants his players to understand that, over all else. The process is the process. For some it moves faster than others. Nikola Jokic rises from a minimal role while Jusuf Nurkic fights through frustration. Both can end up in the same, successful space. But only if they persevere through the process.
“Everybody wants all of their rookies to be great,” Malone said. “It doesn’t happen. Unless you’re LeBron James. Kobe (Bryant) struggled as a rookie at times. So, it doesn’t happen. Staying with it, working hard, persevering. That’s a testament to Chauncey Billups’ strong mental toughness that he was able to do that and have his number retired in The Palace.”
Billups endured this:
• 1997: Drafted by Boston.
• 1998: Traded by Boston to Toronto.
• 1999: Traded by Toronto to the Nuggets.
• 2000: Traded by the Nuggets to Orlando.
• 2000: Signed as a free agent with Minnesota.
• 2002: Signed as a free agent with Detroit.
Six teams. Five seasons. Three trades.
That kind of uncertainty breaks players all the time. Billups admits it almost broke him too. The third pick in the draft is supposed to thrive, not be discarded over and over and over again.
The Pistons, however, treated him like the treasure he knew he was.
Spotlight on …
Emmanuel Mudiay, G, Nuggets
When: We will call this an all-star edition of The Denver Post’s NBA player of the week. And with a performance both expected and unexpected in the Rising Stars Challenge, Nuggets guard Emmanuel Mudiay is the pick.
What’s up: Friday night, as part of All-Star Weekend activities in Toronto, Mudiay scored 30 points, dished out 10 assists and made three steals for the World team, which lost 157-154 to the U.S. team.
Background: For one night, Mudiay didn’t have to worry about setting up everyone else before himself, and he went out and just played. Scoring 30 points wasn’t a huge surprise — particularly during a game in which 154 points were scored by Mudiay’s team. But his improved shooting from the 3-point line was surprising. Mudiay, who has struggled on 3-point attempts this season, knocked down five of his 10 shots behind the arc Friday. Baskets from the 3-point line accounted for half his 30 points. And with a lot of talent around him, the rookie guard still ran the show and handed out 10 assists.
Dempsey’s take: The shame of it all? Mudiay wasn’t included among the final three players in consideration for the game’s MVP award. But it was good to see him play freely and with confidence. If any of that is able to translate back to his day job — running the Nuggets — Mudiay’s performance to open up All-Star Weekend could be a nice jump-start to the remainder of the season.
It was at that time his eyes were opened to the lesson that would later become the biggest takeaway of his career. Billups realized he needed that process. He needed to have patience.
“I was finally ready,” Billups said. “At so many of those other stops, I just wasn’t ready. I wasn’t who I needed to be as a player, which is why a lot of times teams moved on from me. It never a character thing or a personal thing. My game wasn’t ready.
“When I had the ability to come here (to Detroit), I was finally ready.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey @denverpost.com or @dempseypost
