Chauncey Billups Spoke About Honor and Legacy
During his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech in 2024, NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups spoke about his family and bringing honor to their name. The guard, nicknamed “Mr. Big Shot,” recalled when his grandmother first saw his name in the newspaper:
At the time, our Billups name…didn’t carry a lot of reverence and respect at the time, and so she always told me, “I just prayed that somebody would come along in our family that would change how our name is viewed and respected.” And so thanks to the game of basketball, I was able to make the name well-known around the world, and I’m very thankful and grateful for that…Thank you for your prayer, [Grandma]. God answered it. We did it, Grandma…We finally [were] able to put some respect and positivity on our last name.
Billups thanked his parents for teaching him humility and for making sacrifices. During the 2024 NBA All-Star weekend, Billups’ father joined a group of men who visited an Indianapolis prison with NBA chaplains.
RELATED: How NBA Chaplains Took Jesus to Indianapolis During All-Star Weekend
Billups, a married father of three, also used his speech to express pride in his daughters. He thanked them for showing him grace during his busy career. “I talk about legacy all the time,” Billups said, “and for me, legacy is not something that you leave for someone. It’s something you leave in someone.”
