It’s happening. Colorado basketball legend Chauncey Billups – also known as “Mr Big Shot”, “The King of Park Hill” and “Smooth” – will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2024 in Springfield, Mass., on August 16-17.
“Being an NBA champion, being an All-Star, like my dreams never even got that big,” the now-head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers reminisced at a press conference soon after hearing the news. “Obviously, as you get there, and you start becoming an All-Star year after year after year, and you win a championship, you start thinking about [the Hall of Fame] is the ultimate [goal]. I call it ‘Basketball Heaven’, if you will. But, as a kid, I never even thought about it. I never really knew about it. So, to be here now, it’s unbelieveable. It really is.”
Nationally, Billups is best known for his outstanding successes as a professional and collegiate basketball player, but before he ever made his arrival on those stages, he was a star player for Denver’s own George Washington Patriots. “Smooth”, as he was known then, led the Pats to consecutive state titles in 1993 and 1994, and ultimately graduated with 1,952 career points on 23.8 points per game, good for the fifth-most and sixth-most all-time, respectively, at the time of his graduation.
A massive congratulations to one of GW’s finest, Chauncey Billups, for his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame! aka SMOOTH @dps_k12 @DPS @CHSAA @denverpost @9Preps @coloradopreps pic.twitter.com/IvsBYopup3
— George Washington High School (@GWHS_Denver) April 3, 2024
While in high school, Billups was named to the Colorado High School Activities Association’s All-State Team every single season and was named ‘Mr. Colorado Basketball’ three times by The Denver Post, which was made even more impressive by the fact that the honor only existed for the last three years of his high school career.
In 2023, the GW legend returned to his old stomping grounds for a pep rally held in his honor, as the Patriots announced they would be naming their basketball court, “Chauncey Billups Court” in his honor.
“I have some great memories there, obviously,” Billups said after the court-naming ceremony. “It’s where it all started. It’s where I decided that I was going to take this basketball thing very, very serious and see where it took me. It was fun to go back over there – see the court, see it named after me, the logo on the court. It was cool.”
Billups first appeared on the national stage as a member of the Colorado Buffaloes, where Billups earned all-conference and All-American honors, while leading CU to their first tournament appearance in nearly three decades as a sophomore. Years later, the Buffs decided to retire Billups’ No. 4 jersey.
Following his sophomore season, Billups declared for the NBA Draft, where the Boston Celtics selected him with their third pick of the 1997 draft. Over the next six seasons, he bounced between five different teams, before finally landing with the Detroit Pistons. Over the course of the next six years, he earned two All-Star bids, two All-NBA selections, two NBA All-Defense nods, and reached the NBA Finals twice. In the first of those two appearances, Billups ended the heavily favored Lakers’ hopes of a four-peat, as he led the Pistons to a stunning upset and earned Finals MVP honors. Ultimately, Detroit decided to retire Billups’ No. 1 jersey as a result of his tremendous contributions to the franchise.
In 2008, Billups returned to Colorado to join the Denver Nuggets, where he would lead the team on what was the franchise’s best-ever run, at the time, winning 54 regular season games and reaching the Western Conference Finals. Billups also earned three more All-Star selections, another All-NBA spot and the NBA Sportsmanship Award during his tenure with the Nuggets.
Following his retirement from the NBA, Billups spent time as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers and an NBA analyst for ESPN, before being named the Portland Trail Blazers head coach in 2021.