Becoming the Hometown Hero: Chauncey Billups' New Challenge

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.

The Nuggets had officially started their journey with CB as an elite team in the elite conference.

Yet, the playoff run wasn't mainly focused at that time by the unusual rise in record, but at what the Nuggets saw in Billups from the beginning: A mature and skillfull leader who put team first while also creating some energetic basketball.

But it doesn't stop there. How does the expression go? A true leader sets examples? Something like that. Well, Billups did just that.

The Nuggets hadn't been known in recent years to play good defense. But with the mind-set of Billups and his defensive intensity, it became a mentality that would make other players want to bring the same ferociousness on the opposite side of the court.

Anthony, who was always known to be a tremendous scorer, decided to let the scoring work for itself for a bit. He began concentrating more on becoming a very good rebounder and passer, and a very underrated defender. He realized that scoring isn't everything, and if you focus on all the other little things, the ball will find a way into the hoop.

Having Billups on that team produces a point guard that can score almost another 20 points a game while also having a good slow tempo, providing other people the opportunity to score.

Iverson, and I really have nothing against him, was not a great defender. As as result, opposing teams would try to give the ball and force a mismatch with AI. It would generally cause the much shorter and smaller Iverson to give up may points.

On the other hand, Billups is a great shut-down defender and has no trouble playing and staying tight with his man.

It is clear right now that the Nuggets have completely surpassed the Nuggets of two years ago. Still, the team, as we saw this past year, needs to fill up the empty holes.

This goes for mainly in the frountcourt. The disappearance of shot-blocker Marcus Camby seemed as if it would really hurt, but his departure was definitely softened by the good play of Kenyon Martin, Birdman Anderson, and, at times, Nene. The team is still trying to negotiate offers to get a clear starting center for the lineup, and that could possibly be the missing key comes next year's playoffs.

Coach George Karl doesn't seem concerned with the chances of a championship run now that he has Billups to accompany him along the way. He said "the locker room is more serious (with Billups around)."

As good as the Western Conference is compared to the East in recent years, the good guards are mainly small compared to Billups. The better ones like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, etc., are almost all around three inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than Billups, which gives him an advantage.

Even though AI was a good part of the team's success in his 50-32 season with them, what Denver had been really waiting was the playoff run. Iverson's team returned to the usual Nugget case of having an early departure in the first round.

We already saw what Billups could do with this team, leading them to the Conference Finals. Next season, the chances just seem brighter.

Billups most definitely has a history of winning in Denver, winning three high-school state championships and taking Colorado, an awful basketball program at the time, to the NCAA Tournament.

But Billups also maintains his focus as a father and husband. He is the dad of three daughters and gives big bonuses and charity help to organizations like The Children Center, a nationwide hospital.

He desperately wants to help kids with their education and teach them that they should value school and work. Billups said he wants "to directly affect kids that...faced the same obstacles that I faced."

When everything has been made and done, Billups will always be remembered as a hero on and off the court.