Basketball was easy for Billups, where in high school he was a McDonald's All-American, and in college he brought a lot of notoriety to an otherwise unknown University of Colorado team. But after he was the 3rd pick in the 1997 NBA draft, things began to change. Billups had always been a scoring PG, but at that time in the NBA a scoring PG was somewhat frowned upon. So, through his first 5 seasons in the league, Billups was on 6 teams. People began to doubt him, and nobody believed in him.
Billups too began to doubt his game, and who he was as a player. In Minnesota, Flip Saunders had him running the 2, and was the backup PG. The next thing Chauncey Billups did was pivotal in his development. He followed his teammate Terrell Brandon, who was an All-Star caliber player, around everywhere. He also spent a lot of time learning from another teammate, Sam Mitchell. Billups picked his brain and tried to figure out how to play the point guard position. One thing Mitchell told Billups was that if you take care of the person to your left and to your right, the one who benefits the most is the one in the middle.
Chauncey Billups eventually became the starting PG in Minnesota and led the Timberwolves into the playoffs, where he had a series which really put him on the map against the Mavs. Confidence, a hefty contract, and a Finals MVP were now in line for Billups over the next few years.
It wasn't easy for Billups, but he had great mentors, and more important than anything he had a blank slate mentality. He wanted to learn and knew what he would have to do to become a great NBA point guard.
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