Becoming the Hometown Hero: Chauncey Billups' New Challenge

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Since being traded to the Nuggets last season, Chauncey Billups has not only given the team success in the regular season and playoffs, but has given Denver a real hope for a championship run .

Every state, town, and city has its own little sport God to gaze upon. The hero.

Indianapolis is run by Manning, such as Philadelphia was by Iverson. Fans will agree with whatever comes out of his mouth. Even a college athlete could be considered the "hometown winner."

The towns or states woudn't admit it, but they really need such a sports hero that will always provide hope.

But let's re-phrase that whole paragraph. How can these superstars go by the fundamental phrase of a  "hometown hero?"

With the exception of LeBron James, how many sports stars, how many "hometown heroes," are actually from that town?

Most pro athletes had a different hometown, one where they grew up in. Shaq didn't have a house for a while in L.A, yet woudn't that be considered his hometown area?

Did Tom Brady grow up in New England? Did Kobe Bryant grow up in L.A? Did Albert Pujols grow up in St. Louis?

No, no, and, uh, no.

And I'm not saying that Billups' voyage, at first, was really any different. Back in Detroit, Rip Hamilton, Billups, and Ben Wallace were basically all immediately connected with Detroit and Michigan. Yet none of them even grew up near that area.

And during that time, Denver would treat fellow heroes Carmelo Anthony and Brandon Marshall like hometown studs.

But, at this very moment, Billups' story makes the whole meaning make sense.

As a kid and teen, Billups grew up in some of the poorer parts of Denver. Yet, these heroes weren't the millionaire, All-Star NBA players that so many look up to now a days. These were the real hometown die-hards that you'll find throwing down a dunk in a broken down alley while playing street ball.

Billups would walk down that road and admire these fellow neighbors, or just basketball players. Billups made this point very clear when he mentioned that "guys from my neighborhood were the ones that I looked up to. I woudn't watch NBA, but I idolized these guys that I could see and I could meet."

Now, Billups is one of the brightest stars for his Denver, and he is hoping to push the Nuggets to a spot as a serious contender.

This all started after the Pistons and the Nuggets believed they needed a charge-up after a somewhat slow start at the beginning of the season.

Allen Iverson, who will almost always be submitted and known as a better player than Billups, was the refugee in this trade while moving to the Pistons. As hard as it is to find out a team, your team, is willing and even trying to give you away, especially when you had been the leader of the Championship squad, Billups was fine. He even admitted he was content later on and said he was going to re-live his experiences, and possibly end his career, in Denver.

Even though it seemed that Billups was moving into a winning enviroment—a team with Billups and Anthony with strong backups is considered a winning  enviroment—there were some obvious challenges that would need to get perked up a bit.

Billups claimed to identify the first-round dropout problem right away: "I thought (the Nuggets) needed some leadership, and if you're a leader, you're a leader in every phase." He was undoubtedly talking about himself.

The whole league now views Billups as a mainly pass-first point guard and a brilliant leader. This is a big stretch for a player who was verbally attacked and critized by Phil Jackson in his book "The Last Season" for being a bit of a turnover machine and a shoot-first point guard.

Billups began enjoying life as a model in Nugget town, averaging a career-best of 18.6 points per contest and leading the Nuggets to a tremendous change of records since the departure of AI.

Apparently, The Answer was to let him go.

Well, the first moments in Denver revolved around Billups leading the Nuggets to a 21-9 record in 30 games, compared to a disappointing 15-15 with Iverson.

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