Former Boston Celtics point guard Chauncey Billups had a tremendous career as a player that spanned 17 seasons. The Hall of Fame guard only spent half of his rookie season in 1997-98 with the Celtics before he was traded to the Toronto Raptors.
After getting traded to Toronto, Billups played with the Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons (where he won a title), Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Clippers.
After his playing career was done, the veteran point guard became an assistant coach with the Clips in 2020-21 and then was named the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers the next year in 2021-22.
Billups had a slow start in his first three seasons as a head coach with the Blazers. But this season, Portland showed growth and was competitive, leading to the fourth-year head coach getting rewarded.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Trail Blazers announced a multi-year extension for the former Celtics draft pick.
ESPN story on the Portland Trail Blazers and Chauncey Billups reaching a multiyear contract extension after a 14-win improvement in his fourth season as head coach: https://t.co/z3ocZLWb02
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 13, 2025
Heading into Sunday’s regular season finale, the Trail Blazers had a 14-win improvement from last season’s record (21-61), which just illustrates Billups development as a head coach. This season, the Blazers have evolved into one of the better defensive teams in the league.
Portland is ranked 14th in the points per game allowed (114.3), which is slightly better than they were in 2023 (115.4 points per game, 19th in the NBA). It’s not surprising that defense has been Portland’s calling card, as Billups was known for his defense as a player (two-time second-team All-Defense).
Even though his Celtics’ tenure was very small, Billups is still one of the many players who had gotten the chance to wear the green and white. He will now hope to continue to develop his team to become this era’s Celtics team, which is looking to go back-to-back as NBA champs.