Chauncey Billups |
Wiki |
Chauncey Ray Billups (born September 25, 1976, in Denver, Colorado) is an American professional basketball player. He is a point guard for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association. Billups won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004, helping the Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, and was given the nickname "Mr. Big Shot" for making late-game shots with Detroit. A four-time All Star and two-time All-NBA selection, he was chosen third overall in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, and has also played for the Toronto Raptors and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Billups played college basketball at the University of Colorado, where he was honored in 2004 as the fifth player to have his number 4 jersey retired.
Billups attended Denver's George Washington High School, where he was a four-time All-State first team pick, Colorado Mr. Basketball three times, and Colorado Player of the Year as a sophomore and as a junior. He was selected to the 1995 McDonald's All-American Team but did not play due to a shoulder injury, an injury that he would have a problem with off and on throughout his early career.
Billups attended but did not graduate from the University of Colorado, having been drafted during his sophmore year. At Colorado, Billups averaged 18.5 points per game over his two seasons. In the 1996–97 season he was named to the Big 12 Conference First Team and the Basketball Times All-American First Team. That same year Billups led the Buffaloes to their first NCAA tournament victory in over thirty years, 80-62 over Indiana.