Chauncey Billups' tenure as the new head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers did not exactly start on a high note. As soon as he was officially announced, both Billups and the Blazers were blasted for their newly formed partnership, with the former NBA champ's rape allegations from 1997 being dug up by more than a few critics.
For his part, Blazers superstar Damian Lillard earlier admitted that he did not know about Billups' sexual harassment charges from more than two decades ago. Now that he's fully aware of the situation, Lillard has spoken out about how this issue impacted Portland's decision to bring Billups on board:
“I was asked about names that had been floated out there. I said I like [Jason] Kidd, I like Chauncey. At That time, I had no idea of any of it,” Lillard said, via the New York Daily News. “When I did learn of it and the process continued, I never felt like it was my job or my duty to say ‘do this or don't do this.' I do my job, I improve my game and I show up as a point guard of the team. In the past I've never stepped on anybody's toes or demanded anything or told anybody what to do and it was no different in this situation. That's all I can really say.
“I’ve known Chauncey before and I never knew of that until this coaching process came into play. Our organization said they did a thorough investigation and went through everything when they went through the process of hiring a coach that they did in a comfortable way.”
Damian Lillard is basically washing his hands clean here by saying that he had very little involvement in the Blazers' hiring process. To be fair, this is a truly controversial and polarizing issue so it comes to no surprise that Lillard has decided to distance himself from the same. Then again, it would be very surprising if the Blazers All-Star point guard was not heavily involved in the decision to bring Billups on board.
For what it's worth, Billups' 1997 rape case was settled out of court. Nothing was proven and he maintains his innocence to this very day.
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