The backstory to how Chauncey Billups pivoted his career into coaching still makes him chuckle.
“We literally could have had a reality television show about it,” Billups said. “The cameras should have been running. It was that funny. It was crazy.”
The scene was his 15,000-square foot home in Denver during the opening weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main characters were Billups and Tyronn Lue, one of Billups’ closest friends who was then an assistant with the LA Clippers. The supporting cast was Damon Jones, the former NBA player and former Lue assistant in Cleveland, Jay “Doodles” Carter, the cousin of Lue, and Billups’ brother, Rodney.
The plot was turning Billups, 44, the former NBA star, into an NBA coach.
For six weeks, while the NBA and the world were on pause, Billups’ home transformed into a coaching camp, conducted by Lue. With the blessing of Billups’ wife, Piper, the trio of Lue, Jones and Carter moved into their home. There was daily film study. Discussions on philosophies and strategy. And on the basketball court in Billups’ backyard, plays were put to life.
“I couldn’t wait until the next day,” Billups said. “We would get done, and I would be like, ‘Tomorrow, I want to see if he has something for this … .’ ”
The daily sessions would last four to five hours. There was enough comedy throughout the six weeks — Jones getting a bad haircut from Doodles, the playful arguments during games of dominoes and cards — to keep it entertaining. But behind the laughs and jokes, everyone could sense something more serious was taking form. Billups was beginning to love, and understand, coaching.
