The Blazers are Done Talking About Chauncey Billups' Past
Chauncey Billups began his introductory press conference as the Portland Trail Blazers' head coach by discussing how profoundly past allegations of sexual assault have informed his development as a person, husband, father and basketball coach.
Nothing Billups could say on Tuesday, of course, would change his alleged victim's account of what happened on November 9, 1997. But by addressing the allegations and his response to them head-on, unprompted and off the cuff, Billups was at least providing the public a level of confidence that he understood their gravity—and just as importantly, would be willing to continue opening himself up to scrutiny.
About 20 minutes later, Billups was given that opportunity by The Athletic's Jason Quick. Instead of being allowed to elaborate on how the accusations "shaped" him, Billups was quickly silenced.
"We've addressed this," a team PR staffer interrupted. "It's been asked and answered, so happy to move on to the next question here."
Video of the exchange made perfectly clear who it was really objecting to answering the question.
Billups had opened his mouth and was leaning into the mic upon someone suddenly speaking for him. Neil Olshey, sitting right next to his handpicked head coach, had moments earlier drawn an exaggerated sip of his plastic water bottle, side-eyeing public relations as Billups' past was being broached again.
Billups, to be clear, had never actually explained the "unbelievable ways" the incident in question him helped him grow.
"But this experience has shaped my life in so many different ways," he said in his opening remarks. "My decision-making, obviously. Who I allow to be in my life. The friendships and the relationships that I have and how I go about them. It's impacted every decision that I make, it really has, and it's shaped me in some unbelievable ways."
Billups continued, specifically mentioning that the accusations caused him to learn the importance of surrounding himself with the "right" people, a lesson he planned to impart on his players as coach of the Blazers.
"I know how important it is really to have the right support system around you, in particular during tough, difficult times," Billups said. "It's something that I've tried to instill in all the players that I've played with over the course of my career, just sharing some experiences and things that maybe will help them down the road at some point. But I really, really look forward to providing insight, leadership to our guys, who are young and taking on a lot of responsibility as I was at that time. Just being able to support them and walk them through situations is something that I'm gonna take as a responsibility, and I'm thankful and happy to do that."
Whether he meant to evoke the perils of a professional athlete being wrongly accused of sexual misconduct is only for Billups to know for sure. Maybe he'd have clarified otherwise if Billups had been given the opportunity to speak more directly to his evolved understandings of consent and sexual power dynamics when pressed.
Instead, his last comments on the alleged rape were about Billups' "dream job" being worth the trouble of the controversy coming to light again.
"Today is a great day for me and my family, it really is. We knew we'd have to address this," he said of the allegations, "but this is my dream job. This is one of the best days of my entire life."
There's no indication much thought was given to how Billups' alleged victim was feeling on Tuesday, nor that Portland's own internal investigation into the allegations included contacting her.
Maybe the Blazers and their investigative subsidiaries really did reach out to Doe and anyone else who maintains her side of the story. But apparently, details of Portland's probe aren't for anyone to know but the people who approved of and conducted it.
There's no use re-litigating the veracity of Billups' longtime denials of wrongdoing.
- Details of the allegations against him can be found HERE (CONTENT WARNING).
Olshey, the general manager of the LA Clippers when they picked up Billups off the waiver wire in 2011, was no doubt aware of the situation long before earmarking his former player as Terry Stotts' replacement. The Blazers are simply following the lead of the rest of the league by letting Billups' retelling of the incident and investigations that corroborate it stand as sufficient evidence of his innocence.
No one expected Portland on Tuesday to dive headfirst into conflicting specifics of the alleged sexual assault. But by refusing to let an evidently willing Billups further speak his mind and shutting down queries about the nature of their investigation, Olshey and the Blazers cast an even darker shadow over a hiring process that hasn't only caused countless fans to abandon them, but could lead to Damian Lillard eventually following suit.