Blazers feature Chauncey Billups, hired ‘on hold’ amid criticism – The Denver Post

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PORTLAND, Oregon. The Portland Trail Blazers went into damage control mode while introducing Chauncey Billups as new coach on Tuesday, amid questions about how they selected him over more experienced candidates and how allegations were made. of sexual assault were filed against him almost a quarter of a century ago.

Billups has never faced charges related to these allegations which were released in 1997 and settled out of court with the accuser three years later. He touched on this chapter on Tuesday, although when asked to expand on some of those comments, the Trail Blazers declined to let him respond.

Neil Olshey, the president of the basketball teams, said the team hired an independent company to investigate the sexual assault allegations and determined that nothing non-consensual had happened.

We stand behind Chauncey, everyone in the organization, and believe he is the right fit to be our head coach, and the right fit to be the kind of ambassador in the Portland community that everyone here sings about. ‘is used to it, Olshey said.

Billups, a five-time NBA All-Star in a 17-year playing career, has never been a head coach. He was an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers last season.

Billups, 44, has spoken widely of concerns over the 1997 allegations, saying not a day goes by that he does not think about the impact a decision can have on someone’s life.

I learned very young as a player, and not just a player but a young man, a young adult that every decision has consequences, said Billups. And that led to some really, really healthy, but difficult conversations that I must have had with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time in 1997, and my daughters about what really happened and what. that they might have to read about me in the news and then in the media.

When a reporter asked Billups to elaborate, a moderator said the question had already been answered and called another reporter.

The Blazers chose Billups after an interview in which several people, including Becky Hammon, assistant to the San Antonio Spurs, were asked about the job. Other people known to have made the Portlands list were Brooklyn assistant Mike DAntoni and Los Angeles Lakers assistant Jason Kidd, who withdrew his name from consideration.

Olshey praised Hammon, who has been with Spurs as Gregg Popovich’s assistant for seven seasons. At one point, it was rumored that Hammon was the favorite of Jody Allen, owner of the Blazers and sister of the late Paul Allen.

We absolutely admire Becky. She did a great job. Obviously, it’s not easy to determine the level of ownership of a maintenance process, Olshey said. If you start with 20, we cut it down to about six or seven, we zoomed in with a sort of second round, and then it hit the ownership level, which is really an endorsement of how far we’ve come and how close she is to being a head coach.

It was a diverse list of candidates, he added. We had the impression of being in a fair search.

During his career, Billups played for Boston, Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, Detroit, New York and the Clippers. Known as Mr. Big Shot, he was MVP of the 2004 NBA Finals after leading the Pistons to a title.

This season with the Clippers is his only coaching experience.

Olshey, who as the former Clippers general manager claimed Billups off waiver in 2011, addressed Billups’ lack of coaching skills. He believes Billups has potential and believes he will fit in well with Blazers guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Chauncey ticked a lot of boxes. We were looking for leadership, he’s recognized as one of the great leaders we’ve had in the NBA. He’s a Hall of Fame point guard… obviously our two best players are guards like Chauncey. He can relate to them, Olshey said. He’s got the presence to hold the guys accountable and Chauncey and I also have a certain history, we go back beyond our relationship with the Clippers.

The Blazers parted ways with former coach Terry Stotts shortly after the team were knocked out by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

Stotts coached the Blazers for nine seasons, leading them to the playoffs for the past eight. But Portland has failed to pass the first round in four of the past five years.

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