Trail Blazers extend contract with head coach Chauncey Billups

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The end of the season brought the continuation of an era at the Moda Center Sunday morning, with the Blazers announcing Chauncey Billups signed a three-year extension to stay with the team.

When the Blazers decided to not pick up Billups’ extension last off-season, it left him in a do-or- die situation. But now, he’ll get to do a lot more.

“I just had so much growing do last year, when they could’ve picked up that extension,” Billups told KOIN 6 News. “There were still things they needed to learn about me that they ended up learning. It just all worked out. I’ve just always believed that you can’t control fate. What’s supposed to happen is going to, and this was what was supposed to happen, and I’m very, very happy about it.”

A five-time NBA All-Star over a 17-year playing career, Billups is the 15th head coach of the Trail Blazers franchise.

Over the course of his career, Billups played for Boston, Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, Detroit, New York and the Clippers. Known as Mr. Big Shot, he was voted the 2004 NBA Finals MVP while with the championship-winning Pistons.

Billups was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame this past October as part of the class of 2024.

But it’s been a long road for him after taking over the Blazers in 2021. Back then, the team had playoff expectations every year with Damian Lillard on the squad. That obviously changed with Lillard’s departure.

“I had to really look myself in the mirror too and understand how much development I personally needed too, so it probably was good that it changed so that we can grow together,” Billups added. “When I took this job, I had one year of experience. I wasn’t nowhere near where I needed to be.”

It’s not just Chauncey Billups getting an extension, but General Manager Joe Cronin as well. There’s been a lot of documentation of issues between NBA GM’s and head coaches over the past few weeks. But according to Cronin, that’s not the case here.

“It could be what I’m most proud of is the way that we’ve navigated this together,” he said. “It’s not always unique that two people in our jobs can work so seamlessly. It’s something that we’re proud of and something that we think really impacts the rest of our organization and our roster.”

That roster is the league’s second youngest, with the average age on the Blazers being 24 years and two months. Now the players – and Coach Billups who has only been coaching in the NBA for four years overall – will continue their young careers alongside each other.

“The core of Chauncey’s leadership is his ability to build a collaborative culture and growth mindset for our young team,” said Jody Allen, chair of the Portland Trail Blazers. “We’re very happy to extend his contract as head coach, and excited to see his continued work developing our players and transforming this team into one capable of long-term success.”