chauncey-billups Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NBA coaches should be forced to participate in All-Star festivities, too
The NBA wanting a buy-in from its stars is an understandable expectation. However, coaches are rarely a part of the All-Star festivities aside from the Eastern and Western Conference coaches. Everyone except for gym rat Tom Thibodeau is on vacation unwinding from the daily rigors of an 82-game grind...

Who is Mr. Franchise for each NBA team in the 21st century?
Michael Jordan will always be synonymous with the Chicago Bulls. Same thing for Magic Johnson with the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird with the Boston Celtics. But since the turn of the 21st Century, some teams have gone a decade without a face of the franchise (think the Detroit Pistons and Orlan...

The Dallas Mavericks did not just go all-in for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford
The NBA trade deadline was unsurprisingly mundane except for one team: the Dallas Mavericks. Sitting at 29-23, good for eighth in the West, GM Nico Harrison jettisoned Richaun Holmes, Seth Curry, Grant Williams and draft picks in two separate trades for PJ Washington from the Charlotte Hornets, and ...

Deandre Ayton’s ice capades the latest embarrassment in Portland’s rebuild
The NBA trade market is open for business and one team in particular would like you to know that it is jarringly open to offers. The Portland Trail Blazers might not have issued a news release saying as much, yet when your starting center misses a game due to too much ice, the telltale signs of rebu...

In honor of the Magic retiring Shaq's number, here is every NBA team's retired jersey numbers
With the announcement that the Orlando Magic will retire Shaquille O’Neal’s jersey, the NBA has finally done it! All 30 teams have officially retired a jersey number for a specific player (Yes, before Shaq, the Magic’s only jersey retired was No. 6 for “The Sixth Man,” a.k.a the fans)....

Chris Mortensen, Carl Weathers and the sports figures we've lost in 2024
Here is where we look at some of the athletes and sports figures we’ve lost in 2024....

The NBA’s top 3 rookies are tough to watch (for reasons outside of their control)
The 2023 NBA Draft was supposedly a three-team draft. The main prize was Victor Wembanyama, with Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson in the trail positions. Regardless of which guard, wing, or big you got, each could be a franchise cornerstone. The caveat is what exactly would they be holding up? ...

The real problem with the Josh Giddey statutory rape allegations
When you continue to embrace a man who reportedly impregnated a 13-year-old when he was in college, and honor that same man regularly by inviting him to marquee league events (like the 2023 All-Star Game) alongside Kareem Abdul Jabbar and LeBron James, it makes it really hard to discipline a current...

These are the all-time NBA starting fives
While debating politics over Thanksgiving can cause irreplaceable family fissures, debating the all-time starting fives for each NBA team holds way fewer stakes. There are many different ways to build an all-time starting five, all of which illicit strong reactions. Some people prefer to choose the ...

NBA Weak Links: Milwaukee‘s 2-guard position could be a sinkhole on their road to a title
A great team is only as strong as its weakest link. At least that’s the consensus among every motivational coach I’ve ever heard. But for the sake of this space, it’s true for NBA contenders as well. I’ll examine the weak spots in some of the most iron-clad lineups in the NBA entering the 2023 seaso...

When did the New York Knicks become a franchise worth stealing ideas from?
Is the NBA truly a copycat league? And if so, what would the Toronto Raptors want with New York Knicks intel?...

The Denver Nuggets are no longer the playoff wallflower
Before this series, if you’d asked most people who would advance to the NBA Finals between the Lakers and their nameless opponents, they would have responded with a rhetorical question. “Do you know who they’re playing?” Not literally. The Denver Nuggets aren’t in witness protection, but just a few ...

Ask Becky Hammon about an NBA coaching gig again, I dare you
Becky Hammon to the NBA feels like a tired story, one that gets revived on occasions like International Women’s Day to remind sports fans that she’s more than capable of leading a basketball team in any league. However, I’m not going to do that because I want to highlight just how exhausting this na...

Another AFC championship loss and the Chiefs’ run will begin to resemble the Pistons of the 2000s
Over the last five years, the Kansas City Chiefs have been the closest thing we’ve seen to a dynasty in the NFL. Having won only one Super Bowl, the clock is ticking on their opportunity to claim the dynasty title. Playing in five consecutive AFC title games is an accomplishment but bringing home ju...

The NBA’s poverty franchises
The competitive lifespan of an NBA franchise is delicate. A team’s championship relevance depends on many factors, including the front office’s competence, coaching staff, and the totality of star power on the court. “Poverty” in the NBA sense can be defined by the corrosion of the team’s ethics and...

These 10 modern-day players’ primes were squandered by inept teams
Mike Trout is the tree that falls in the forest every September. He might as well exist in the cold, vacuum of space. If there’s any evidence that sports are raw and unscripted, it’s Trout’s annual storyline. His slow fade from public consciousness as the playoffs creep closer is in stark contrast t...

Portland Trail Blazers hired Chauncey Billups over Dawn Staley and Becky Hammon, who both won championships this year
Becky Hammon and Dawn Staley were literally right there. ...

Damian Lillard seals himself in a tomb fit for a pharaoh
It appears the Dame Time will forever be in the pinwheel as sources told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears and ESPN’s Bobby Marks that Damian Lillard agreed to a two-year, $122 million extension with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to a story from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst....

The Pistons won the draft and the last two days
There might be some fans at the gigantic Little Caesars arena, because the Detroit Pistons took some serious steps towards solidifying a young nucleus for the future of their franchise....

Upcoming sale of the Trail Blazers could partially atone for team not hiring Becky Hammon
If the recent sale of Chelsea FC taught us anything, it’s that sports franchises are as valuable as ever. The English Premier League club sold for $5 billion, and there was no shortage of suitors. That should make Portland Trail Blazers’ fans sleep better in the coming months as a sale of the team i...