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The Denver Post Online
Sports
Billups plays numbers game
By Vicki Michaelis
Denver Post Sports Writer
June 19 - We could ask NBA general managers to take lie-detector
tests. We could wait for lightning to strike McNichols Sports Arena.
Or, if we really want to know where Chauncey Billups will be cutting
his NBA teeth, we could rely on Stanley Stewart's gut.
"I believe he'll be here (in Denver)," said Stan the barber, designer
of the distinctive lightning rod in Billups' hair and diviner of
Billups' future. His gut told him more than three years ago the local
hoops sensation would play his college ball at the University of
Colorado. His gut, of course, was right.
"All you guys who don't have your Nuggets season tickets," he warns
now, "you better go get them." No one else is so certain. Not Nuggets
vice president of basketball operations Allan Bristow, who strongly
believes Billups will be gone before the Nuggets pick at No. 5. Not
the draftniks, who have him to Boston at No. 3, possibly Philadelphia
at No. 2.
Not even Billups, who said, "The uncertainty will kill you." This was
a guy who was confident he could help make CU a contender (he did),
confident he would rise above other point guards in this year's draft
(he has). Now, he's come to one of the few forks where a strong drive
to the basket won't steer his turn.
"A lot of people ask me who I want to play for and who I'm going to
play for. Even if I did have a preference, it's out of my hands. You
just don't have a clue," said Billups, who will interview with the
Nuggets Friday.
Actually, we have some clues. We just don't know if they can be
believed.
Boston, for example, needs a point guard. New Celtics coach Rick
Pitino, who tried to recruit Billups to Kentucky, heaped high praise
on Billups after watching him work out for several NBA teams last
month, telling the Boston Globe: "People say he's not a natural point
guard, but to me he has all the point-guard skills. When he catches
the ball, he's in the triple-threat position - shoot, pass or drive."
That workout was the only one Billups has done, the only one he plans
to do. In the days after, his draft position rose dramatically.
"When I first declared, a lot of people were saying I would be between
eight and 12. Some people even said 10 to 15. Now, it's totally
different," Billups said.
Now, Billups is neck-and-neck with Bowling Green's Antonio Daniels for
first-point-guard-taken status. Because Daniels had a flare up of knee
tendinitis during his workout at Boston, Billups could come out in
front.
Daniels might follow Billups at No. 4, going to Vancouver, although
Vancouver general manager Stu Jackson has indicated recently he might
take Kentucky's Ron Mercer instead.
The Grizzlies worked out Daniels twice, just as Denver did. After
Daniels' second workout in Denver Wednesday, Bristow called Daniels
"our hope." Asked about Billups, Bristow essentially said, "No hope."
"He won't be there," he said.
The Nuggets did not attend Billups' workout in Connecticut. Bristow
said he attended several CU games last season and did not think
anything but an individual workout would show him more than he knew.
"I was surprised the Nuggets weren't there," Billups said.
Bristow has insisted that he will not trade up for any player besides
Utah forward Keith Van Horn. But he said Wednesday that an impressive
individual workout by Billups might have changed his mind.
Billups and his agents decided early on, though, that he would do no
individual workouts unless the group workout did not go well. It went
well enough to earn him millions more in his first three years as a
pro - this year's No. 3 pick will earn close to $7 million his first
three seasons; the 10th pick will earn less than $4 million.
"You just see him being the prototype," Bristow said of the reason
Billups' stock rose. "He's one guy Q if you just look at his strength,
his quickness, his shot, his ability to penetrate, run the
pick-and-roll and come off a screen - you know he's going to make it
in the NBA." The lottery teams, most of them in the early stages of
rebuilding, also like that Billups already has helped turn a losing
situation into a winning one.
While Billups calls playing in Denver an "appealing" prospect, he will
not be disappointed if it does not happen. He chose once to stay in
Colorado, to see if his shoulders and skills were large enough to
carry a team to success, and to be near his family.
"My family will always be important to me, but maybe it's time for me
to see other places, experience other things," Billups said.
If so, someone please tell Stanley Stewart's gut. Gently.
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