On this day in Boston Celtics history, point guard Chauncey Billups played his first game for the team. The Colorado product would later be traded in his rookie season after being selected by the Celtics with the third overall in the 1997 NBA draft, but it wasn’t because of how he performed the first time he took the floor as a pro.
Billups put up a very healthy 15 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and two steals in his inaugural performance, shooting a sizzling 6-of-12 from the field, a much less sizzling 1-of-4 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 2-of-2 from the charity stripe.
That he did that in just under 17 minutes of game time off the bench makes it even more of a head-scratcher team president Rick Pitino would later trade the rookie scorer.
