The L.A. Clippers’ starting Shooting Guard Chauncey Billups’ season is over. The rehab will likely take around 8 months, but the former 2004 Finals MVP has vowed to return to the NBA. He told Yahoo! Sports that “has been the story of my career: coming back, fighting, scrapping…” On the season, he is averaging 15 points, 4 assists, 2.4 threes on 36% FG shooting, his second-lowest shooting percentage since 1999 when he only played 13 games. Despite poor shooting, Billups has become the archetypal “been there, done that” guy on a young Clippers team. Between him and Caron Butler, the only two players to have NBA championship rings, they really have seen just about everything — including the rise and fall of Allen Iverson, the final curtain call of Michael Jordan, the slow decline of Tim Duncan, and the coronation of a King.
The injury came in Tuesday’s win against the Orlando Magic. Everyone knew right away that it could be the Achilles tendon and began wishing Chauncey the best of luck as the organization waited for an MRI. In his stead, Mo Williams and Randy Foye must step up. Together, they are more than capable of reproducing his statistical output; but can they do the “Big Shot” when it counts? For Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, this probably means a slight dip in the number of easy, unexpected lobs-turned-dunks, as Billups played Point Guard for most of his career. Fans should look forward to seeing him on the sidelines where he will carefully mentor CP3 in the Clippers playoffs. In recent years Billups has jumped from Detroit, his spiritual home, to Denver, the city from which he hails, to New York, the city that ultimately cut him just as it was forming its own “Big __ something”, to Los Angeles where he hoped to take yet another unlikely team all the way. Good luck, Chauncey. Everyone loves you.
Los Angeles Clippers Tickets are available for all Clippers Games. Clippers Vs Spurs Tickets for the showdown on Feb 18th at 12:30, Clippers Vs Nuggets Tickets for Feb 22nd at 7:30 and Clippers Vs Lakers Tickets for April 4th 7:30 are just some of the BIG Clippers games coming up at the STAPLES Center.
Good read, useful article, happy I came across this blog. Again, thanks!