Chauncey Billups Elected to Naismith Hall of Fame's Class of 2024
The Trail Blazers' head coach is being honored for his 17-year playing career.
On Saturday, during the Final Four, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is set to announce its full class of 2024 inductees. A league source confirms that Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups will be among them, as first reported by The Athletic. Billups is being honored for his 17-year playing career, which spanned from 1997 to 2014. Vince Carter is also reportedly going into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Billups has been eligible since 2017 and been included on the Hall’s initial long list of candidates every year since then. But this year was the first time he was included on the list of finalists released in February, which boded well for his chances of induction that will now be coming this fall.
Until this news, he was one of just two eligible former Finals MVPs who weren’t in the Hall of Fame, the other being Cedric Maxwell. He’s the second Hall of Famer from the 2004 Pistons title team, joining Ben Wallace, who got elected in 2021.
“I’m not lying, I never even dreamed about the Hall of Fame,” Billups said in February, when he was first announced as a finalist. “I dreamed about making it to the NBA, and then I dreamed about being a champion, and then an All-Star. I never really dreamed about the Hall of Fame. But it’s awesome to have a chance at it.”
The induction ceremony will take place in Springfield on August 17.