How Basketball Mentality Binds Chauncey Billups and Damian Lillard
USA TODAY Sports
Neil Olshey knew it from the moment he took his first car ride with Damian Lillard.
It was June 2012, following Lillard's pre-draft workout with the Trail Blazers. Olshey, hired just over three weeks before the forthcoming draft, hadn't been in Portland long and didn't know the Weber State product well. Most of the scouting legwork on Lillard was done by interim general manager Chad Buchanan and his team.
Driving with Lillard to a restaurant in Lake Oswego, though, Olshey grew more and more comfortable with Lillard. Why? The humble, confident, driven point guard uncannily reminded him of another floor general with whom Olshey—previously general manager of the LA Clippers—had recently grown close: Chauncey Billups.
"We’re driving around, and we’re just talking, and I just kept like going, 'Oh, my god, he’s Chauncey, he’s Chauncey,'" Olshey recalled on a February 2020 edition of The Habershow with Tom Haberstroh. "Like, Chauncey just had a gravitas with him that he walked into the room and you went, ‘That’s the leader’. And I got the same vibe from Damian. He just carried himself, and it wasn’t a swagger and it wasn’t an arrogance. It was just the supreme confidence where you just knew guys would want to go to battle with him. That he was about the right things."
Olshey's preference for Billups in the Blazers' search to replace Terry Stotts as head coach was no secret. The same mentality that helped drive Billups and Lillard to all-time NBA greatness from modest basketball beginnings, though, surely wasn't the only reason Olshey believes Portland's new coach is such a perfect coach for its reportedly disgruntled franchise player.
What attributes was Lillard—who publicly named Billups and Jason Kidd as his personal favorites and sat in on interviews with the Blazers' final candidates—looking for in the second head coach of his career? Accountability, it's safe to say, was one of the traits Lillard desired most.
Stotts was very well-liked by his players during his nine seasons in Portland. But among the reasons why a change on the sidelines seemed imminent throughout 2020-21 is because his notoriously mild-mannered approach grew stale in the Blazers' locker room, a perception confirmed by multiple reports and most reflected by Portland's oft embarrassing effort defensively.
Billups has been lauded for his ability to reach players during his brief time as an assistant with the LA Clippers. As much as his wealth of playing experience and overall strategic acumen has helped Paul George take strides as a playmaker this season, Billups believes it's his innate commitment to holding players accountable—as a coach or teammate—that will most lead to success in Portland.
"I was a guy that, I had no problem holding my teammates and I also had no problem with my teammates holding me accountable. I'm the same way [now]," Billups said during his introductory press conference. "I'm the same way with the Clippers this season. I'm just honest with the dudes, and they respect that. Because I've just always believed that no matter how great a player is, they still wanna be coached. There is no perfect player, there is no perfect coach."
Lillard's future in Rip City has never been in greater doubt. But as long as his team is comfortable with a culture of accountability, Billups appears confident the level of contention Lillard seeks will eventually come with the Blazers.
"You gotta be able to accept accountability—if you want to win, if you want to reach your ceiling," he said. "I've always believed that, I'm always gonna be that way. It's just kind of who I am."