Chauncey Billups’ NBA tenure as a head coach has gone very differently from his playing days. The Hall of Famer won the 2004 NBA championship and took home Finals Most Valuable Player with the Detroit Pistons. He appeared in five All-Star games over the course of a 17-year career.
Billups has not enjoyed the same success as an NBA head coach with the Portland Trail Blazers.
What Happened After Chauncey Billups’ Successful Career?
After four losing seasons, ESPN’s Shams Charania announced the FBI arrested the Blazers coach for alleged illegal gambling. Here is a look at Billups’ playing and coaching career to date.
Billups signed eight contracts in his playing days from 1997 to 2014. He has a net worth of $35 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He signed a new contract with the Detroit Pistons on July 11, 2007, after becoming an unrestricted free agent earlier that summer. The deal was reported as a five-year contract worth approximately $60 million, with the first four years guaranteed at $46 million and a team option for the fifth year valued at $14 million. His career took off when he originally signed with them in 2002 on a six-year, $35 million contract.
The Boston Celtics took Billups wth the third overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft but traded him to the Toronto Raptors in his rookie season. He signed a two-year, $4.7 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves before earning the longest deal of his career — a six-year, $35 million contract — with Detroit.
Billups increased his scoring average from 12.5 to 16.2 in his first season with the Pistons, and he never looked back. He became a consistent postseason threat from 2002 to 2010 for Detroit and the Denver Nuggets. Billups never averaged less than 16.1 points per game in the postseason across this eight-campaign period.
He racked up $106.8 million throughout his legendary career and was not done with basketball after his playing days ended in 2014.
Billups’ Arrest Derails Trail Blazers’ Rebuild and Promising Young Core
Billups was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2020-21 season. Many assistants spend years in that role, but Billups signed a five-year deal in the 2021 offseason to become the Trail Blazers’ head coach. The contract included a team option in the final campaign, but Portland extended him on a multi-year deal.
Billups inherited a Trail Blazers team ready for a rebuild. They have not reached 37 wins in the last four seasons, but Portland showed promise in the second half of the 2024-25 campaign. It went 13-14 after the All-Star break. Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, and Toumani Camara looked like a formidable wing trio.
Portland has high hopes of escaping its rebuild this season, but Billups’ arrest casts a shadow on a bright future. The NBA placed the former Pistons’ star on immediate leave, and the Trail Blazers named Tiago Splitter as the acting head coach. Billups’ legendary basketball career might never be looked at the same.