Photo by: Sports Media Relations

The after-college basketball adventures of Rodney Billups made a stop at Magness Arena last Thursday for the Pioneers’ game against Florida Atlantic.

The former Pioneer has, since graduation, played in Latvia, Colorado and Finland thus far in his professional career.

“Basketball was great abroad,” Billups said. “I have no complaints about basketball. I played well. I got to make some money and I was in a culture shock for like, four months.”

Billups, who is the younger brother of Chancey Billups who plays in the NBA for Detroit, played four seasons at DU and helped lead the Pioneers to a National Invitational Tournament appearance and their best record in school history, while averaging 10.2 points and 6.4 assists per game in his senior season.

“Not everybody is as athletic as we are here in America,” Billups added when describing the type of play in Europe. “Guys can shoot better. It was easier for me because I was faster than everybody, I played better defense than most guys, so it was an easy adjustment.”

After Billups graduated from Denver he played in the NBA’s summer league for the Detroit Pistons, but did not make the team and decided to play basketball in Latvia.

Billups has played for the last year and a half in Europe until he found out that Latvia was no longer paying him and returned home.

He tried out for the NBDL’s Colorado 14ers, but never made it on the team.

His adventure continued back to Europe where he made it on a team in Finland. After the team lost its first three games, all four Americans on the team were released, including Billups.

“Right now I am stressed with basketball, so I am taking a little time off,” Billups said.

That time off will include helping the struggling and oft-injured DU men’s basketball team.

“I am hoping that I can give some type of help to these guys, with the injury-bug going around like it is, they need all the help they can get, and I am going to be around here for a while,” Billups said.