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ESPN Analyst Chauncey Billups Retires from BIG3 After 2 Seasons with Killer 3s
March 27, 2019
Former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups will retire from the BIG3, the league announced Wednesday.
The 42-year-old guard suited up for the Killer 3s, one of the league's original eight teams.
Billups played 17 NBA seasons, making five All-Star Games and leading the Detroit Pistons to a 2004 NBA Finals win. He averaged 15.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest over his career.
The man known as Mr. Big Shot may be retiring from competitive basketball, but he could be staying in the game.
Marc Stein of the New York Times reported that the Minnesota Timberwolves could be looking to hire Billups, who played two seasons for them.
"Rumbles persist that Glen Taylor, the Wolves’ owner, remains interested in bringing his former point guard Chauncey Billups back to town to run the front office. Yet skepticism also persists about Taylor's ability to make an offer attractive enough to lure Billups from his analyst job at ESPN.
"Calvin Booth, a Denver executive who the Nuggets hired away from the Timberwolves before the 2017-18 season, is increasingly mentioned as a strong candidate to replace [Timberwolves general manager Scott Layden] if Taylor does make a change."
Billups has been connected with various NBA teams in executive capacities before. Ice Cube, a BIG3 co-founder, told TMZ Sports in 2017 that Billups was leaving the league for a front-office job with the Cleveland Cavaliers:
That never came to fruition, but Stein reported last March that the Pistons were looking to bring Billups back to Detroit in a front-office capacity.
That gig didn't materialize either, but it seems like a matter of when and not if Billups will get a shot with a franchise. Per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com), Billups made his wish to run a front office clear.
"My desire is to one day run a team, be in a front office and try to build a champion," Billups said. "I know that I will, and I know I'm going to do a good job. When that opportunity presents itself and it's a good opportunity, I'll be ready to go."
We'll see if anything develops shortly, but as for the BIG3, it'll move into the 2019 season with four new expansion teams and an 18-city tour.