Auburn Hills, Mich. – Dark clouds everywhere and a wicked thunderstorm splatting fat drops on his windshield, Detroit forward Antonio McDyess jumped from a Hummer and bolted for the arena door. Right behind was Pistons teammate Chauncey Billups in his Range Rover, running for cover at the NBA Finals.
“Good to get out of the rain,” said McDyess, as he entered the Palace of Auburn Hills.
It takes more than a little lightning to scare the defending NBA champions.
Left for dead after two losses on the road, Detroit won for the first time in this best-of-seven series.
The Pistons beat San Antonio 96-79 on Tuesday night.
They could not have done it without the help of Denver and the Nuggets.
Billups is the King of Park Hill, the best basketball player ever produced by the state of Colorado.
McDyess has won an Olympic gold medal, but no matter how hard he tried during two playing stints with the Nuggets, he ultimately left Denver in a whole lot of pain, scapegoated as a leader too timid to make the team a winner.
They have found a home in Detroit.
How did McDyess end up with the Pistons, when he went looking for work a year ago, praying to revitalize a career most observers thought was as dead as the spring from his battered legs?
“Chauncey called me a lot,” said McDyess, grateful Billups not only kept the faith, but put in a good word with Detroit general manager Joe Dumars.
For all the criticism that chased Dan Issel out of town as a flawed leader of the Nuggets, give him credit for two smart moves. He brought Billups and McDyess to Denver for the 1998-99 season.
They were projected as the building blocks of great things to come for the Nuggets.
It did not work out the way anybody dreamed.
Billups was traded from Denver for the worst reason: Issel’s spite for a malcontent named Ron Mercer. Billups was given away as a bribe to Orlando, which would not make a deal without the point guard being included in the transaction.
As I sat in Issel’s office as the clock approached midnight in February 2000, warning him he would come to regret letting Billups go, his face grew redder, his anger seethed and Issel finally declared whatever relationship we had was over.
The mistake was ending the relationship with Billups, who was named MVP of the Finals a year ago.
After winning Olympic gold in 2000, three knee surgeries left McDyess a wreck, both body and soul.
“It was a mental breakdown for me,” McDyess admitted. “It was definitely frustrating, because I wasn’t able to do the things that I normally do, you know, jump over people, use my quickness.”
I have seen McDyess cry, none of the tears the result of chronic injuries that tempted him to quit basketball.
So tortured was he by being unable to put the Nuggets on his shoulders, McDyess wept out of frustration more than once after a Denver loss before being shipped out of town in 2002.
Folks in Colorado who forget how good McDyess was should please remember this. More than once, he averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds in a season for the Nuggets. That is something current Denver forward Kenyon Martin has never done in his NBA career.
The Pistons, whose brand of basketball is so gritty, watching them can make you spit sand, rejoined the fight at the Finals shortly before halftime, when Billups decked San Antonio guard Tony Parker on a drive to the hoop with a forearm shiver. And that shot was more telling than any of the 20 points Billups scored.
“Tonight,” McDyess said after scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds against San Antonio, “I kind of felt like my old self.”
Walking off the court with Billups, two survivors from the stormiest days of Nuggets’ futility looked like winners.
“I’m just glad to see he’s back at this level and he has a chance to play for a championship and be in the Finals,” Billups said. “It makes me very proud of him.”
It was good to see them smile.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
