Chauncey Billups has surprising revelation about time with Timberwolves

Long-time fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves remember all the various players who have come through Target Center over the years, and not just the biggest names. One who some of the more casual fans may have forgotten played in the Twin Cities back in the day is Chauncey Billups.

Recently, Billups appeared on 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & Kid Mero, a podcast hosted by the former NBA All-Star. On the episode, Chauncey explained how he was drafted third overall in the 1997 NBA Draft and ended up bouncing around to four different teams within his first five professional seasons in the league.

As we know, it would not be long after this initial struggle that he would end up as the 2004 Finals MVP for the NBA champion Detroit Pistons. When asked about what he believed to be the turning point in his career that allowed him to eventually reach this mountaintop, Billups explained that he saw his time with the Timberwolves as a crucial stepping stone that allowed him to turn his career around.

Chauncey Billups says the Timberwolves turned his career around

"To me it really happened mostly in Minnesota right before I went to Detroit," Chauncey said. "Because for the first time, one, I was ready. I knew what I needed to do now, I knew what I needed to focus on. So I was ready, and then I had a couple vets. I got to learn from Terrell Brandon ... He poured into me, he taught me how to read pick-and-rolls, he taught me how to read defenses."

One lesson Chauncey says he learned from Terrell Brandon that stuck out to him was about what being a point guard truly means. Brandon showed him how individual performance did not matter to him if his teammates were not also playing well. Billups emphasized these bits of wisdom in explaining how valuable TB and other vets like Sam Mitchell were to him.

For fans that are old enough to remember, Billups was certainly a valuable contributor for two Timberwolves teams that won a combined 97 games and went to the playoffs back-to-back in 2001 and 2002. Most every NBA fan remembers him for his time as a Piston, so it is certainly encouraging to hear that he got so much out of his time in Minnesota.