NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 15, 2005

Chauncey Billups

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: I don't. I don't really know, you know, why that's happened. I thought these games would all be, you know, 82-87, playing in the 80s, early 90s, you know what I mean. I really don't have an explanation. I think you've got, you know, two similar teams in the way that we approach the game and the way that we play the games. I just know that it's going to be a good, long series, you know what I mean. I don't know anymore that the game is going to be 82-89, you know what I mean. It's proved me wrong in that aspect. So I really don't. I can't pinpoint why.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Yeah, McDyess, he was -- man, he went through some very dark days with his surgeries and things. And me being one of his closest friends, I was there to kind of talk to him and help him through it a little bit and just tell him that, you know, you can still shine, you can still be a part of something special. You don't have to go to a situation where you have to be the main man anymore, but you can still be looked at in a great perspective. I think he trusted in what I was saying, he believed in it, and I'm just very happy that he gave it a second chance. I'm even more happy that he gave a second chance with us, you know, because he could have been somewhere else and starting and had a great, great season, he could have done that. But I think he knew where his career was at, he knows what's most important, and that's winning and being a part of something special. He took advantage of it.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Yeah, he does. He's a very humble guy, man, very humble. He's always had that kind of attitude. Like you said, if he had not been injured, he would still be -- he'd probably be a seven-, eight-, nine-time All-Star by now. But everything happens for a reason, and we're finding out, you know, why those injuries happened for him.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Not really, man, not really. We're still down 2-1. I thought we played with a lot of energy yesterday, but I don't think that we really clicked the way that we can. I thought our effort was just there. We just played hard. We just played the way we're supposed to play effort-wise. I thought we could have executed better sometimes during the game, throughout the game, but, you know, when our effort is there, we can make some mistakes and we can, you know, not execute as good as we need to do sometimes, because we're going to make some energy plays and we're going to get some extra possessions. I thought we just played as hard as we need to play, and if we can continue that, then maybe we can start, you know, doing some other things better and executing better.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Well, it's tough, it's tough because I'm pretty much a scoring point guard, you know, an aggressive point guard. I think these last two years with Coach Brown, I've learned when is when and when it's not. So that's taken me some time to adjust to, but I think the position now, man, there's not too many point guard out there that can't score anymore. That's just the game has changed, you know what I mean. You look at all of the top point guards in the league, all of them are scorers or can score and keep the defense honest. But the position has definitely changed. I think that the way that I play the game and the way that, you know, a lot of other players that play this position play the game is the way that it is now, you know. Like it or not, that's just how it is now.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Oh, no question. No question. It's still a point guard position. It's still the quarterback. You've still got to get the ball to the right people at the right times in their spots, and being aggressive doesn't mean you shoot the ball all the time. It just means making plays for everybody; it doesn't have to be for you. Like I said, the position has changed in the game a little bit, but you still have to be the quarterback out there and you've still got to be looking to get everybody else off.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: You know, this whole thing is not about me versus so and so or whatever. I don't I don't really rate head-to-head match-ups, because it's the Pistons versus the Spurs, you know what I mean. It's not Chauncey versus Tony or Rasheed versus Duncan or Tay versus Ginobli. It's us versus them. No matter if I'm winning a head-to-head battle with Tony Parker or not, if my team is winning, I'm winning, but we're down 2-1, so he's winning basically. It's not about personal or individual match-ups.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Has Tony Parker improved defensively? I mean, he's a good defender, he's fast and he's scrappy. I think he has problems with me because I'm so much bigger and stronger than he is, you know, just like on the other end, he's so much faster than me so it's difficult for me. We both have our strengths and our weaknesses, you know what I mean, but he's a scrappy defender.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Well, he's the best at, you know, keeping everybody loose, but at the same time, he has a serious approach to the game. We know that he's always going to be there, you know what I mean, whether it's offense or defense, he's going to be there, he's going to make the right plays at the right times. Like you said, he has that tendency to keep everybody loose, and I think we've got the kind of personnel that nobody really gets that tense anyway. We play every game like it's, you know, like it's regular season, you know what I mean. We don't put no extra pressure on ourselves, even though y'all do, we don't. We play the same way, we go in the locker room the same way, the speech is the same every night, you know what I mean. We're all for one another.