Report: Blazers Conducted 'Internal Investigation' of Allegations Against Chauncey Billups

According to ESPN, the Trail Blazers conducted their own probe into sexual assault allegations against Chauncey Billups.

Swift public outcries about past allegations of sexual assault against Chauncey Billups won't prevent the Trail Blazers from hiring him as the team's next head coach. Just as unsurprising? The "internal investigation" Portland deployed to corroborate Billups' decades-long denial of the claims apparently turned up nothing new.

Confirming previous intel, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Saturday night that the Blazers knew they wanted to hire Billups after he met with president of basketball operations Neil Olshey and owner Jody Allen in Seattle on Wednesday.

But before officially offering him the job on Friday night, the team reportedly conducted its own investigation into the alleged 1997 rape of a woman committed by Billups, Boston Celtics teammate Ron Mercer and another man that corroborated his claims of innocence.

Reporting on NBA Countdown on Chauncey Billups and the Trail Blazers pic.twitter.com/OO2TKJX20t

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2021

Wojnarowski also made sure to note that though Portland was well aware Billups had recently been vetted by both the LA Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers, the team didn't "rely" on those conclusions of no wrongdoing on Billups' part to make their own.

Further, Billups recounting of the incident—he's always maintained any sex act between he and his accuser was consensual—during personal conversations with Olshey and Allen "aligned" with findings of Portland's probe.

"I'm told they continued their own internal investigation into those '97 charges throughout the day Thursday, throughout the day Friday before they offered him that job on Friday night," Wojnarowski said.

"Portland knows that Chauncey Billups had been vetted by a number of other organizations prior to this process, including the Clippers, who hired him as an assistant coach last year, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who previously offered Chauncey Billups an elevated position of president of basketball operations. They didn't rely on those probes. I'm told in their conversations with Chauncey Billups, he recounted his version of those events a number of times, including with Neil Olshey, the president of basketball operations, and their owner Jody Allen. And that those aligned with what their investigation had found."

Any expectation that an investigation into the alleged rape would reveal details contradicting Billups' denial was foolish. As necessary as the Blazers' probe was, it was also always a formality.

Billups has ostensibly spent decades telling the same story. He played for six different teams following a trade from the Boston Celtics just months after the incident, then had a half-decade turn at ESPN in his post-playing career before joining the Clippers. 

His supposed memories of the night in question are still somewhat fresh, and even real-time accusations of rape are notoriously difficult for investigators to confirm or deny—let alone one that was made 24 years ago.

Billups' alleged victim, known as Jane Doe, has never recanted her claims. After no criminal charges were filed, she ultimately settled civil a lawsuit filed against Billups.

• Details of the reported rape can be found HERE (CONTENT WARNING).

The Blazers are expected to formally announce Billups as head coach "as soon as early next week," according to Wojnarowski.

[Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN]

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