50 Greatest NBA/ABA Players Not In the Hall Of Fame
By Phil Watson
Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Allen Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
Chauncey Billups has been bypassed in his first two years of eligibility, leaving him the only eligible winner of the Finals MVP award not enshrined.
Billups won the Finals MVP in 2004 when he led the Detroit Pistons to an unexpected NBA title against the Los Angeles Lakers and went on to earn three All-NBA and two All-Defensive nods while with the Pistons.
No one expected Billups, who had already played for four teams and been a member of a fifth, to blow up into a star when he signed with Detroit as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2002.
But he became a steady floor leader for the Pistons after bouncing from the Boston Celtics to the Toronto Raptors to the Denver Nuggets to the Orlando Magic — with whom he never suited up because of a shoulder injury — to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After six straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances, Billups was traded back to Denver early in the 2008-09 season for Allen iverson before being part of the deal that sent Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks in February 2011.
He finished his career with two injury-riddled seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers and one season back with the Pistons before retiring in 2014.
For his career he averaged 16.2 points, 5.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 31.6 minutes per game over 1,043 NBA games, shooting 41.5 percent overall and 38.7 percent on 4.5 3-point attempts per game.
Billups finished fifth in the MVP voting in 2005-06 and is 14th all-time with 1,830 3-pointers and 44th with 5,636 assists. His 89.4 percent mark from the foul line is sixth-best in NBA history, as well.