Former Pistons star and current ABC analyst Chauncey Billups doesn’t want to be associated with rumors involving Detroit’s front office while the current management team remains in place, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press.
The first report came in March from Marc Stein of The New York Times, who tweeted that Billups might be brought in to run the organization along with former agent Arn Tellem. Billups denied the rumor at the time, and owner Tom Gores responded with the word “False.”
Billups repeated his stance Saturday at an autograph session in the Detroit area.
“I think that was in bad taste,” he said. “Everybody knows that I have the desire to run a team at some point, but I would never discuss or talk about a job that’s not open. That’s not my character. That’s not how I am, so I was a little angry about the report that came out. The timing of it was bad. It was false.”
Rumors of a shakeup are gaining steam again after this week’s meeting between Gores and coach/executive Stan Van Gundy. No results have been leaked from that session, but there is speculation that Van Gundy may be asked to relinquish his coaching or front office role.
Billups remains a natural choice to run the Pistons given his track record as a player there and his expressed desire to be an NBA executive. He turned down a similar offer from the Cavaliers last summer.
“It’s easy to link Chauncey Billups with Detroit,” he said. “I’m always going to be a lifetime Piston and people know my desire, but it’s also not fair to a guy like Stan who is the president and the coach and he’s current. It’s not fair for him to hear things like that and I don’t want to be the bull’s-eye on that because all that stuff is false.”