Blazers Press Conference announcing new coach 6-29-2021

[Rastapopoulos]

New Trail Blazer Coach Chauncey Billups, who visited Portland Tuesday for a news conference, comes with high marks from many around the NBA.N

“I have no doubt that Chauncey is going to make a great head coach,” former Piston teammate Ben Wallace said. “Hell, if I was a little bit younger, I’d go try out for the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I knew from the moment he first walked into the gym with the Pistons, he took control. He was the floor general, getting guys in position and leading the team.

“The way he was able to control our offense and run our show, and at times force our coaches on the sideline to take a backseat, because he’s already got three or four plays in his head that we’re running.”

Mark Warkentien, who spent 10 years working in the front office of the Trail Blazers, was the general manager of the Denver Nuggets in 2008 when he traded for Chauncey Billups, a deal that sent Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons.

Warkentien raves about Billups. Asked by Chad Doing on Monday’s 620 Radio “Rip City Drive” about Billups as a person, his former GM was effusive.

“Perfect,” he said. “A one-word answer. Perfect. He was a great teammate, is great in the community. He was perfect. Just absolutely perfect. I mean, the people of Portland are going to love him.

“He can babysit my kids. I trust him in absolute terms.

“As a coach, he’ll be tremendous. Just tremendous

https://t.co/UfksTS0Bbp

The thing is - I believe all of this. I believe he's a great guy. Why not, he's always come across that way. But I can also totally understand why some people wouldn't. And whichever way you go, to go out and hire somebody with this accusation in their past is a way for Olshey to say "I don't care enough about what this woman said to not pick my favorite from any number of candidates who are, in most cases, better qualified." I want to believe that Chauncey is the great guy I've always thought he was and this event (which in his own description, does NOT sound good) was just a one-off youthful indiscretion. But me believing that doesn't mean that OLSHEY gets to do the same, because his actions have a fuck ton more implications than mine, and send a message about things far beyond basketball, whether or not he likes it.

 

[Labinot41]

Dame was doing a promo for biofreeze at Moda this afternoon

https://instagram.com/stories/drakegreen_/2607089266762550885

Awesome, i'm sure he already spoke to Billups and hopefully they start to build a great relationship. And hopefully he cooled down a little bit over the past days

 

[Rastapopoulos]

do you miss the tabloid press in England because it seems you're craving it..looking for that dirt under the rug....Chauncey's case is well documented...it bothered me, after I looked into it I found nothing suspicious and a lot of transparency from him...I came to the conclusion that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and made and expensive mistake any 20 year old could've easily made...you seem to need a monster in the story but my research found he's no monster

I'm frankly surprised at how you're willfully misunderstanding my position. And you must know that YOU reaching that conclusion is not enough to settle the issue.

A month ago I would've been very happy with Chauncey - I believe at one point in past years I actually suggested him as a coaching candidate. But these facts, including his sworn testimony, change everything.

And all those people saying "people will forget once we start winning" - what does that prove? People are fickle mushheads? We knew that. Does it prove the accuser lied? Of course not.

 

[riverman]

I'm frankly surprised at how you're willfully misunderstanding my position. And you must know that YOU reaching that conclusion is not enough to settle the issue.

A month ago I would've been very happy with Chauncey - I believe at one point in past years I actually suggested him as a coaching candidate. But these facts, including his sworn testimony, change everything.

And all those people saying "people will forget once we start winning" - what does that prove? People are fickle mushheads? We knew that. Does it prove the accuser lied? Of course not.

The issue was settled 24 years ago...had nothing to do with me....you've drawn a conclusion based on an emotional response...not because of the case itself...everyone who's vetted Chauncey has reached the conclusion I have...what have you got that's breaking news concerning him and this incident.....nothing

 

[Buffalo Custard]

This is not a legal matter. Do you think people should've hired OJ after he was found "not guilty"? What would you think if you saw on somebody's resume - "accused of rape but settled out of court"?

Is it unfair on Chauncey to hold something against him if he genuinely is not guilty of rape? On the one hand, you want to say "being falsely accused shouldn't hold anyone back!" and that's true. BUT:
1. We don't know the truth.
2. Without some bombshell piece of evidence, we have to decide between whom to believe. There's no way to avoid it. Oh wait, there is - NOT HIRE CHAUNCEY.
3. Chauncey is not some terrible victim in this, any more than Kavanaugh was (in the circumstances in which they didn't get the jobs, and, of course, they did) - he's had a great career (AFTER the events) and has a great job.
4. Chauncey does not have a right to get the job. Literally nobody does. So nobody's rights are violated (not Chauncey's, not Becky Hammon's) if they don't get the job.

As I pointed out elsewhere, it is a fact the legal system has failed many women. It is also a fact that black men (yes, more than white men) have been lynched, jailed, and had their reputation ruined over bogus charges. 2 wrongs. A response that "fixes" one by allowing the other is no solution at all.

 

[Orion Bailey]

Which settles nothing about what actually happened. Fact.

You do get that, right?



Imagine you are the accuser's parent and you believe her account. Do you think, "Good for Chauncey, after all, he paid off my daughter and it was over 20 years ago."

Here's how to avoid the press asking questions: don't apply for a public position.



So rich people can get poor people to shut the fuck up?



This is hilarious. Your concern for the accuser's privacy is touching.

sorry you are wrong. It settles everything. Or they wouldn't have agreed to terms. What actually happened is no longer relevant and your stance it is is asinine.
If im the accusers parent, i ask my child why they settled if they didnt want him to go on and be successful due to the accusation.

Again. You are putting yourself into their emotions and you have no rational right to do so. They handled their emotions by settling 20 years ago. I dont need to think like the acquirers parents. Thier daughter made a choice and as a parent i would live with it.

stop hypothesizing a narrarative thats based on your opinion and not facts.

This is hilarious. Your insistence that the public has a right to know about a private situation two adults settled 20 years ago isnt touching. Its concerning. But them your extreme emotions were also exhibited with the elections so i guess i should consider that when evaluating tour position on this.

How do you think you have a right to know the details?

i mean really???

 

[calvin natt]

New Trail Blazer Coach Chauncey Billups, who visited Portland Tuesday for a news conference, comes with high marks from many around the NBA.N

“I have no doubt that Chauncey is going to make a great head coach,” former Piston teammate Ben Wallace said. “Hell, if I was a little bit younger, I’d go try out for the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I knew from the moment he first walked into the gym with the Pistons, he took control. He was the floor general, getting guys in position and leading the team.

“The way he was able to control our offense and run our show, and at times force our coaches on the sideline to take a backseat, because he’s already got three or four plays in his head that we’re running.”

Mark Warkentien, who spent 10 years working in the front office of the Trail Blazers, was the general manager of the Denver Nuggets in 2008 when he traded for Chauncey Billups, a deal that sent Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons.

Warkentien raves about Billups. Asked by Chad Doing on Monday’s 620 Radio “Rip City Drive” about Billups as a person, his former GM was effusive.

“Perfect,” he said. “A one-word answer. Perfect. He was a great teammate, is great in the community. He was perfect. Just absolutely perfect. I mean, the people of Portland are going to love him.

“He can babysit my kids. I trust him in absolute terms.

“As a coach, he’ll be tremendous. Just tremendous

https://t.co/UfksTS0Bbp

Warkentein lives in Lake Oswego, see him all the time. Always find it weird that he lives here. Long NBA career.

 

[riverman]

Awesome, i'm sure he already spoke to Billups and hopefully they start to build a great relationship. And hopefully he cooled down a little bit over the past days

I think they'll be opening wine all evening tonight with Chauncey and his wife

 

[Scalma]

Warkentein lives in Lake Oswego, see him all the time. Always find it weird that he lives here. Long NBA career.

met him at summer league in Vegas couple years ago. Nice guy.

 

[calvin natt]

This is not a legal matter. Do you think people should've hired OJ after he was found "not guilty"? What would you think if you saw on somebody's resume - "accused of rape but settled out of court"?

Is it unfair on Chauncey to hold something against him if he genuinely is not guilty of rape? On the one hand, you want to say "being falsely accused shouldn't hold anyone back!" and that's true. BUT:
1. We don't know the truth.
2. Without some bombshell piece of evidence, we have to decide between whom to believe. There's no way to avoid it. Oh wait, there is - NOT HIRE CHAUNCEY.
3. Chauncey is not some terrible victim in this, any more than Kavanaugh was (in the circumstances in which they didn't get the jobs, and, of course, they did) - he's had a great career (AFTER the events) and has a great job.
4. Chauncey does not have a right to get the job. Literally nobody does. So nobody's rights are violated (not Chauncey's, not Becky Hammon's) if they don't get the job.

It sure sucks that being accused = with you forever like you are guilty, can’t get jobs, etc.

 

[Orion Bailey]

I'm frankly surprised at how you're willfully misunderstanding my position. And you must know that YOU reaching that conclusion is not enough to settle the issue.

A month ago I would've been very happy with Chauncey - I believe at one point in past years I actually suggested him as a coaching candidate. But these facts, including his sworn testimony, change everything.

And all those people saying "people will forget once we start winning" - what does that prove? People are fickle mushheads? We knew that. Does it prove the accuser lied? Of course not.

willfully missunderstanding??? Lmao.
There wont be any proof either way. Ever. Dont you get that? It was settle by the parties involved 20 years ago. At thst point, what happened is irrelevant to you or me or anyone else. Regardless of what you beleive or dont believe.
The only fact is that they settled. Period. You should try letting it settle yoyrself.

thecreason you are being “missunderstood” is because you keep doubling down on an invasive stance for both the accused and accuser.
I cant state this enough. Get your nose out of their asses. Its a really really bad look and if you continue to insist its your right to look up in their ass, you must be prepared to be shit on for it.

 

[crandc]

Last night during the games one of the announcers mentioned Billups getting the Portland gig and added he will knock it out of the park. Talk about mixed metaphor!

 

[Fitz303]

The thing is - I believe all of this. I believe he's a great guy. Why not, he's always come across that way. But I can also totally understand why some people wouldn't. And whichever way you go, to go out and hire somebody with this accusation in their past is a way for Olshey to say "I don't care enough about what this woman said to not pick my favorite from any number of candidates who are, in most cases, better qualified." I want to believe that Chauncey is the great guy I've always thought he was and this event (which in his own description, does NOT sound good) was just a one-off youthful indiscretion. But me believing that doesn't mean that OLSHEY gets to do the same, because his actions have a fuck ton more implications than mine, and send a message about things far beyond basketball, whether or not he likes it.

So should no GM in the last 24 years have traded for or signed him either? Should the clippers not have hired him? Where was the outrage?

 

[riverman]

So should no GM in the last 24 years have traded for or signed him either? Should the clippers not have hired him? Where was the outrage?

He was vetted by Disney for espn ...Disney doesn't fuck around when they vet employees I've heard

 

[B-Roy]

He was vetted by Disney for espn ...Disney doesn't fuck around when they vet employees I've heard

They fired Paul Pierce for smoking a blunt.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Awesome, i'm sure he already spoke to Billups and hopefully they start to build a great relationship. And hopefully he cooled down a little bit over the past days

They already have a great relationship. They’ve been friends for years. Chauncey brought that up at the presser as well

 

[ehizzy3]

Sooo with ya.

im even pissed at 1080 the fan right now. Their 15 minute looped headline news reportsdetailing the conference says nothing about how Billups discussed improving the team and only has excerpts about his past. Even their looped news headline is playing into dragging this out.
Ive always liked Isaac, Jason and Mike but man thier news headline made me search the radio on the way home today.

Ropp was on a heater of shit takes today

 

[JoshuaHall]

This is not a legal matter. Do you think people should've hired OJ after he was found "not guilty"? What would you think if you saw on somebody's resume - "accused of rape but settled out of court"?

Is it unfair on Chauncey to hold something against him if he genuinely is not guilty of rape? On the one hand, you want to say "being falsely accused shouldn't hold anyone back!" and that's true. BUT:
1. We don't know the truth.
2. Without some bombshell piece of evidence, we have to decide between whom to believe. There's no way to avoid it. Oh wait, there is - NOT HIRE CHAUNCEY.
3. Chauncey is not some terrible victim in this, any more than Kavanaugh was (in the circumstances in which they didn't get the jobs, and, of course, they did) - he's had a great career (AFTER the events) and has a great job.
4. Chauncey does not have a right to get the job. Literally nobody does. So nobody's rights are violated (not Chauncey's, not Becky Hammon's) if they don't get the job.

1. Exactly. We don’t know the truth so it shouldn’t be a factor, period. Shouldn’t even be a talking point.
2. No we don’t need to decide who to believe. It shouldn’t be a factor.
3. Ok.
4. Agreed. Just as we have no *right* to judge him based on a legal matter that he was not convicted of. Theoretically, in an actual career, he wouldn’t even have to disclaim his out of court settlement.

 

[Orion Bailey]

Ropp was on a heater of shit takes today

Yeah, Not thier best show, no doubt. lol.

 

[blazerkor]

So I finally got to sit down and listen to the whole presser. I felt like it was strong. I feel like when you point out that ESPN and the Clippers have done the same thing you just did and that your process came up with the same result as theirs, that's pretty strong ground to stand on. One thing that they didn't point out and were probably wise not to go too deep into it is that the police and DA never pursued charges against Chauncey. Then you have Chauncey acting like Chauncey. I know we'll never know what happened in 1997, I know that aspects of it have to come down to the horror that is a he said, she said in a sexual assault case. That being said we can only walk forward in our ignorance and the person that Chauncey is definitely makes that more comfortable.

I'm excited for him to be our coach. I'm excited for the changes he's going to make to this team and the expectations put on them. He said he holds guys accountable instead of saying that accountable was some outdated catch phrase or whatever nonsense Terry spewed out. We're a better team today because we have Chauncey. It's crazy that Chauncey does have this accusation that hangs over him because throughout his career he's been known as a character guy. So, again proceeding in ignorance as far as 1997 goes, I think we have a good one for our new head coach.

 

[TheHobbit]

As someone just banned from BE, Dia’s end goal is to get as much attention as she can to try and crack into sports journalism and she’s smart enough to exploit the issue of rape for clicks.

It's funny that people be like "don't you dare judge Billups!!" and then write stuff like this at the same time.

 

[riverman]

It's funny that people be like "don't you dare judge Billups!!" and then write stuff like this at the same time.

karma....it's more like don't try people for serious crimes they've never been convicted of on your sports platform and then act like seeing this guy on a podium made you shake from trauma....she judged Chauncey and projected her own assault onto him without evidence....she stirred this shit up as soon as it rose from BE...she's still stirring it up...Chauncey did nothing to her or her family but she's gone hard at him ...no sympathy...makes me question her integrity concerning her claims and that's not a good thing. She is basking in her 15 minutes of twitter outrage and if she's got PTSD she shouldn't be casting stones at someone who is innocent and has been a high character professional for 24 years since the settlement...she might be your best friend but I think she's way out of line with her tweets and the article she wrote about this....in fairness Dave gave her the megaphone and egged her on.

 

[LayneStaley]

Chauncey will be excellent, Neil has to go. He has literally lost the ability to relate to his fanbase. That LA shit don’t work in Portland.

 

[blazerkor]

I think it's crazy that the only thing that hurt today's press conference is that we just don't trust Neil. If we had a GM/President that we trusted, we would all feel OK when he said that we'll just have to take his word for it about the investigation. Chauncey, the guy with a rape accusation in his past, did a much better job of putting me at ease than Neil did and again, that is crazy.

 

[Natebishop3]

Warkentein lives in Lake Oswego, see him all the time. Always find it weird that he lives here. Long NBA career.

He had a cute daughter too.

 

[calvin natt]

I think it's crazy that the only thing that hurt today's press conference is that we just don't trust Neil. If we had a GM/President that we trusted, we would all feel OK when he said that we'll just have to take his word for it about the investigation. Chauncey, the guy with a rape accusation in his past, did a much better job of putting me at ease than Neil did and again, that is crazy.

Exactly this. Neil didn’t do or say anything crazy. Any other person up there says the same words and no one says a bad word.

 

[KristinthBonkers]

This is not a legal matter. Do you think people should've hired OJ after he was found "not guilty"? What would you think if you saw on somebody's resume - "accused of rape but settled out of court"?

Terrible post. OJ was arrested and charged, Billups wasn’t.

Do you even care about due process? Why even follow the team anymore? Seems you, unlike the actual judicial system, already tried and convicted Chauncey.

You should check out Blazer’s Edge. You’d fit right in there.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

I personally feel that the press conference could not have turned out better. Yes it was a shit show from the beginning but they didn't make it worse and i just loved hearing Jason Quick get shut down.

Excited to get things going and to start looking forward to the next season.

 

[All Net]

i hate to do this, but there is no way the media would have treated a white coach this way.

Nonsense. Did you see the way the media treated Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over an incident that happened when he was a teenager?

 

[KristinthBonkers]

Last night during the games one of the announcers mentioned Billups getting the Portland gig and added he will knock it out of the park. Talk about mixed metaphor!

How is that a mixed metaphor? Are you assuming Billups beat up the accuser who settled the civil suit, too?

First I’ve heard of that one. Where did you get that information?