Chauncey Billups credits brief stint in Minnesota as launch pad for HOF career

Billups played in Minnesota during the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.

Dec 10, 2013; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons shooting guard Chauncey Billups (1) moves the ball on Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Alexey Shved (1) in the fourth quarter at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Minnesota won 121-94. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports / Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Chauncey Billups may have never developed into a Hall of Fame point guard if it weren't for two seasons playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Billups, now the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, credits his time in Minnesota — a two-season stretch that saw Minnesota win 97 games and make the playoffs twice — for helping him launch to stardom with the Detroit Pistons.

"To me, it really happened mostly in Minnesota right before I went to Detroit. One, I was ready. I knew what I needed to do now, I knew what I needed to focus on. So I was ready, and then I had a couple of vets. I got to learn from Terrell Brandon. This [guy] was cold. He poured into me, bro. He taught me how to read pick-n-roll, he taught me how to read defenses," Billups said on 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero.

Billups played in Minnesota for the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons and was Brandon's backup until a knee injury sidelined Brandon and gave Billups the chance to start alongside Kevin Garnett and Wally Sczcerbiak. He averaged 22 points in Minnesota's first-round playoff series loss to the Mavericks in 2002 and wound up signing with Detroit as a free agent that June.

In Detroit, five years and four teams after he was the third overall pick in the draft, Billups blossomed into one of the best point guards in the game and helped the Pistons win the 2003-04 NBA Finals. But he harkens back to his time in Minnesota as his launching pad for success.

"This one time, one little story, we at halftime of a game, I sit right next to [Brandon] in the [locker room]. He had like 16 and 9 at the half. He killing. But he was so upset. I'm like, 'bro, what's up?' I would've been so happy. I was like, 'Yo, TB, what's up?' He said, 'This ain't going right.' I said, 'What you mean?' He was like, 'I'm the point guard, bro. [Kevin Garnett] only got 6 and 6, he's our best player. If he don't come in here with like 18 and 7 at the half, then I didn't do my job,'" Billups recalled.

"See, I wasn't even thinking like that. I got to be with TB and to like school me, teach me. And then Sam Mitchell was our old head, and I learned a lot from him. That was when it really changed for me. The Minnesota little year is where it really changed. That was kind of my moment where once I got to Detroit I knew I was ready, but it was then. That would be my moment for sure."