When you love home, there is never a bad time to return. When a beloved son returns home, there is never a shortage of love. When both meet, it’s all good.
Isn’t it?
In the two days after the Nuggets acquired Chauncey Billups last week, he estimated he received “over 200 texts” and about the same number of phone calls.
His popularity is undeniable and goes beyond his excellence on the court, first at George Washington High School, then at the University of Colorado, then in the NBA, most notably with the Detroit Pistons.
He is expected to be nothing less than the Nuggets’ savior as a point guard/floor leader. But can he be everything to everybody and every cause in the community that could use a little Billups Love? Friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues mean no harm. But will the forces pull Billups in a direction that makes him less effective at what has allowed his stature to grow?
“You know, if I let it get there, I’m sure it could be,” Billups said. “I’m not going to bite off too big a piece of the cookie right now.”
Billups is two things: a talented winner with an NBA title and Finals MVP under his belt, and a no-frills philanthropist whose name adorns charitable causes throughout metro Denver.
In Boulder, Billups helped spearhead the Ralphie Kids Roundup, a ticket donation-based program in which he buys tickets for kids to attend CU basketball games. A mural of his image is splashed on the wall of the Coors Events Center in tribute.
“That helps us two ways,” CU athletic director Mike Bohn said. “That helps us financially, and that helps us in the community and getting kids to come and be part of the growing basketball program.”
Billups’ influence to help CU
Billups’ influence at CU goes beyond donations. He was part of the coaching search that landed Jeff Bzdelik, though he played for — and remains close to — Bzdelik’s predecessor, Ricardo Patton. Billups recently visited Patton, who now coaches at Northern Illinois, to talk life after basketball. The two have grown to be close friends since Billups left Colorado as the third overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft.
The business of helping the Colorado athletic program isn’t done. In fact, with Billups now in Denver full time, Bohn envisions him helping a program trying to regain its legs more than ever.
“He’s such a strong figure that transcends so many different things,” Bohn said. “To have him competing in our backyard gives us an opportunity to salute him and really allow his influence and his level of class and professionalism to permeate more of our student-athletes and to help build upon the legacy that he left here.”
Down the road in Denver sits Lonnie Porter, men’s basketball coach at Regis University. He founded the Lonnie Porter Summer Academy in 1996, which became the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy in 2006 after Billups sought out the coach, invited him to Detroit to participate in a charity golf tournament and expressed a desire to help out.
On Sept. 13, the duo hosted a gala to benefit the academy, which raised $225,000 and drew rave reviews from Mayor John Hickenlooper and Gov. Bill Ritter, who called Porter and Billups a symbol of “intergenerational leadership.”
“I think it’s more important to have him in town for the community at large because he exemplifies what a young pro should be,” Porter said. “He’s a consummate gentleman. He cares about his fellow man. He is not opposed to giving of his time to help young people and to work with young people. He’s a connection. It’s natural. He doesn’t have to work at it like some people do, trying to be accepted, because he’s not an outsider. This is home for him.”
Billups has given money to renovate the Hiawatha Davis Rec Center — the former Skyline Rec Center where he played as a youth — and sponsors a team in the summer league held there every year under the watchful eye of Joint Effort Community Sports director John Bailey.
“He was the best player to ever come up out of here,” Bailey said. “But more importantly, he’s in the same category as John Elway or some of the other high-profile sports figures that have made a difference. The difference between him and those other guys is he was born here. He’s a homeboy.”
Nuggets’ expectations high
Eleven years ago, Billups could have played his junior season at Colorado with an intriguing recruit from California — forward Jamahl Mosley.
“And then he found out he was going to be the third pick in the draft and left,” Mosley said, laughing. “We joke about it.”
Now, they are reunited. Mosley is an assistant with the Nuggets. He still sees what he saw then in Billups, when the guard helped recruit Mosley to Boulder.
“You could tell his leadership is there, his maturity level is always high,” Mosley said. “There was something special about his demeanor. I was young at the time, coming in. But you know how you can tell a star when you meet one? That’s kind of how he was then.”
Despite his talent, and high draft status, it took Billups several years to find his niche in the NBA. He had a rocky start in Boston, was traded and later had a short, injury-marred stay in Denver from 1998-2000, followed by a steady climb toward stardom. He peaked under no-nonsense taskmaster Larry Brown in Detroit, who gave him control of the Pistons from the point.
“Chauncey brings that point guard leadership role that we’ve been kind of looking for, for a long time,” Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said.
But will he fit Denver’s pump-up-the-volume pace coming from Detroit’s grind-it-out style?
“It’ll be a little adjustment period here because I haven’t played this style in a long time,” Billups said. “We played slow-down basketball for a long time. So it will be a little different, but it won’t take too long for me to adjust. I’ll be fine.”
By and large, fans are taking a wait-and-see approach to the Billups Era. The man he replaced, Allen Iverson, was so well-liked by fans that there remains a fair amount of skepticism as to how good Billups is for the Nuggets.
But, said Patton, Billups won’t worry about that. He’ll just work to make the Nuggets better.
“He is as grounded, and always was, but always was very dedicated to becoming a better player,” Patton said, “and was always a student of the game. . . . He hasn’t changed one bit. You would think that with the accolades that he’s received to this point that he’d be satisfied, but he’s not.”
Still, winning with the Pistons is one thing. Winning with a group of guys who have never won a playoff series together in Denver is another. But being back in his hometown has energized Billups. He vows to keep his eyes on the championship prize.
“As far as the basketball goes, that’s the easy part,” Billups said. “When I say that’s the easy part, that’s what I’ve been used to doing all my life. It’s not easy to win in the Western Conference, but the basketball part is easy.
“As far as off the court, me being who I’ve always been in the community. I take a lot of pride in that. I’m going to be there as much as I can. But people will just have to understand that I can’t do everything.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Memphis at Denver
6 p.m. tonight, ALT, KCKK 1510 AM
Spotlight on Marc Gasol: The Nuggets have had enough problems with one Gasol, and now there’s a second in the Western Conference. Pau’s little brother is Memphis’ rookie big man, and so far this season, Marc Gasol has looked very Pau-ly. The Memphis center averages 10.8 points per game and a team-high 8.8 rebounds, and on Monday, he scored 27 points with 16 rebounds against Golden State. Both Gasols played for Spain in the Olympics, going against Carmelo Anthony’s Team USA in the gold-medal game, which the U.S. won.
Notebook
Nuggets: Power forward Kenyon Martin is “50-50” for tonight’s game, coach George Karl said, because Martin hyperextended his sprained left wrist in Friday’s game. Martin underwent an MRI on Saturday, which didn’t reveal any damage to bones or ligaments. . . . On Friday, the Nuggets agreed to buy out the contract of Antonio McDyess, who was acquired in Monday’s trade with Detroit. The buyout will be for $6 million over two years, a source said. . . . The Nuggets will be without Chucky Atkins (knee), Steven Hunter (knee) and Sonny Weems (groin).
Grizzlies: Rudy Gay is in his third season, and he has the most experience of any Grizzlies starter. Memphis starts three rookies (O.J. Mayo, Darrell Arthur and Gasol) and guard Mike Conley, an NBA sophomore. . . . Last season, Memphis lost all four games to Denver. . . . Mayo leads all rookies in minutes played (39.4).
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
