Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Rodney Billups' Dream Includes His Big Brother
June 14, 2010 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Someday, he wants himself and the older brother he calls "my best friend" to be partners in the business of basketball. They're both currently in the sport - Rodney as the University of Colorado's newly hired director of basketball operations, his older brother as a celebrated point guard for the Denver Nuggets.
That would be, of course, Chauncey Billups, the former CU star who might have been even more elated than Rodney when the younger of the two was brought aboard a couple of weeks ago by new Buffs coach Tad Boyle.
The CU job is a foot-in-the-door opportunity for Rodney, who had discussed the same position with former coach Jeff Bzdelik before Bzdelik's abrupt April departure for Wake Forest. Rodney's long-term hoops goal is to coach, Chauncey's - when he's done being "Mr. Big Shot" - is to be an NBA general manager.
Someday, hopes Rodney, he might work for his big brother in the NBA. Told you he was dreaming big.
"Those are conversations he and I have pretty frequently," Rodney said. "But that's something that's not going to happen overnight and I understand that. It's going to take a lot of hard work for me.
"Chauncey has his foot - he may have his whole leg - in the door. Hopefully he can keep playing for some years. But after his career's over, he wants to be a GM. He's been doing some things to position himself to have that opportunity . . .
"With me starting my career now, if I'm able to focus on learning and getting everything I can from Coach Boyle and the other coaches on the staff, then maybe I'll have a shot at working with Chauncey at that level."
For now, he's grinding away at this level, doing all he can to absorb the daily instruction that comes his way from Boyle and assistants Tom Abatemarco, Jean Prioleau and Mike Rohn. Directors of operation in college athletics programs are the detail guys, the nuts-and-bolts practitioners who do sweat the small stuff.
"I think I'll be fine at the job description that coach gave - mentoring the guys and doing the business side of it because that's my background," Rodney said, adding that being on hoops' flip side - that of being a coach/administrator - still will be an adjustment for someone who's played the game since he was a kid in Denver's Park Hill community.
"There's a fine line between what you can and can't do (as a coach), what you can and can't say . . . I'm trying to bridge that gap," he said. "You need to be able to decipher when to step in, when to be quiet. But I'm just happy and real excited to be working with this group of guys . . . it seems like they're taking me on pretty well.
"It was one of the things that Coach Boyle and I talked about first - being able to come in at the ground level and learn everything there is on the coaching side of basketball. I want to be able to grow and be a head coach myself."
Rodney is a George Washington High School (2001) and University of Denver (2005) graduate. He played basketball (guard) at both places, well enough at DU to be a co-recipient of the Floyd M. Theard Jr. Memorial Award that is presented annually to the Pioneer player who best exhibits leadership, scholarship and sportsmanship qualities.
After leaving DU, he played for a couple of seasons in Europe, which was just long enough to almost quench his passion for playing.
When I asked him if he'd gotten hoops out of his system, he answered without hesitation, "No . . . I wish I could be strapping 'em up again. But I can play on my own time. I'll get enough of watching Chauncey, watching these guys here. I'll enjoy being on the other side of the game now."
But after Bzdelik's exit, Rodney wasn't sure he would land on this side of the game.Â
"Right when I thought I had it (the job) and was going through the whole interview process, he left for Wake," Rodney recalled. "For a couple of weeks after that, I didn't know what was going to happen. I thought it was a long shot; I was waiting on a coach to be hired.
"I just waited it out. Then when Coach Boyle got hired, he contacted me. From that point on, our relationship has been growing and everything's been great."
Before meeting Boyle, Rodney's knowledge of his soon-to-be-boss was limited to only what he'd read about Boyle's tenure as coach at the University of Northern Colorado.
"I knew he was a winner; I knew that for sure," Rodney said. "I had never played against him; I left DU before he got to Northern (Colorado). But in the last couple of years, I knew he was doing a great job there. For gosh sakes, his was the best team in Colorado last year. It was hard not to hear about him, but I didn't know him personally."
When Bzdelik left, Boyle called Billups and rekindled CU's interest in hiring him. It wasn't the first time the Buffs had shown interest in him: Former coach Ricardo Patton, who had recruited Chauncey (1995-97) to Boulder, had contacted Rodney during his sophomore/junior years at GW then again early in his senior season.
But after signing a guard during the November signing period, Patton passed on Rodney, who made a junior college stop before enrolling at DU.
"The timing wasn't right," he said. "I went to DU, but I would have loved to have been a Buff and play for Coach Patton, but it didn't happen."
Rodney learned his hoops from Chauncey, Patton's top recruit and the best CU basketball signee in several decades. Sharing playground court time with a future NBA All-Star and Finals MVP accelerated Rodney's maturation.Â
"I had to grow up fast at a young age," Rodney said. "Being the player he was, and with me six years younger than him, I had to mature pretty fast - deal with pressures and adversities and everything that goes along with being a younger brother. I think the most important thing is learning how to hold my own."
But he said he never felt like he was constantly battling to escape Chauncey's shadow: "No, there wasn't any of that. We were so close in our relationship . . . he always told me I'm going to make you a better player than me - and at that time I believed that.
"I thought I could be a better player than him, (but) my legs didn't stretch as long as his did. I never got the size he got. But our relationship was very personal and I never felt like I had to be better than him."
After recently settling in Aurora, Rodney will commute to Boulder - "Not an easy drive every day, but it's worth it." He remains in close contact with Chauncey, whom he calls "a real CU fan, man. When he sits in front of that TV, he's loud. You would think he's a parent (of a CU player) or something. He's passionate about Colorado basketball."
That makes two of them now.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
