Chauncey Billups and Joe Dumars had rift after trade to Nuggets

Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News:

""Me and Joe at one time were really tight. I can’t honestly tell you it’s like that," Billups said. "The trade, the way it was handled, led to the strain in the relationship. It’s cool now, though. We’ve talked about it now.""Joe and I, we’re cool. We text from time to time. I had dinner with Jordan (Dumars, Joe’s son) a couple months ago in L.A. We speak, we text."Time had to heal an old wound, considering Billups long admired Dumars and wanted to follow in Dumars’ footsteps as a player-turned-executive."He and I did have a long, long conversation," Dumars said. "It was good to have. From that point on, that’s when we’ve gotten back to checking on each other and seeing how we were.""

Many of us assumed Billups was traded to his hometown of Denver as some sort of compromise, a favor from Dumars once he decided to trade Billups. This story doesn’t necessarily preclude that one. Their rift could have been larger had Dumars traded Billups elsewhere. But this story certainly makes the “favor” version of events less likely.