George Washington High School names basketball court after Chauncey Billups in ceremony
Coach Chauncey Billups attended a pep rally at his old school on Tuesday prior to the meeting in Denver between his Portland Trail Blazers and the Nuggets.
George Washington High School named their basketball court in his honor during the event.
"I have some great memories obviously there," Billups said afterwards. "It's where it all started. It's where I decided that I was going to take this basketball thing very, very serious and see where it took me. It was fun to go back over there - see the court, see it named after me, the logo on the court. It was cool."
His daughter accompanied him to the event.
The Nuggets wound up defeating the Blazers 122-113.
Billups was born in Denver in 1976 and is a graduate of George Washington High School. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder and was honored in 2004 as only the fifth player to have his jersey number (No. 4) retired.
In the pros, Billups was an NBA Finals MVP while playing for the Detroit Pistons. He was traded to the Nuggets in 2008 for Allen Iverson and led the team to the playoffs, winning the NBA Sportsmanship Award in the process. He was traded to the New York Knicks in 2011 and played on several other NBA teams after that before retiring. He was hired by the Portland Trail Blazers as their head coach in 2021.