Chauncey Billups Suffers Torn Achilles Tendon, Out For The Season

It’s never good to lose a starter for the season, especially when said starter is someone like Chauncey Billups, the guy who’s been a steadying influence for the Clippers all year long.

Billups is by all accounts one of the nicest guys in the NBA, and exactly the sort of veteran that works in tandem with Chris Paul to set the tone for a roster that’s otherwise full of inexperience. In that sense, losing Chauncey feels like a killer blow. But you gotta look on the bright side here.

Billups didn’t address the issue of free agency when talking to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski on Tuesday, but he did promise he’d be back once he’s healthy.

“I will be back,” Billups told Yahoo! Sports by phone. “I’m not done. I’m not retiring. I will definitely be back. This has been the story of my career, coming back, fighting, scrapping and I will play again.”

A torn Achilles tendon can sideline athletes up to a year, but given Billups’ situation -- a 15-year veteran who will be a free agent this summer and turns 36 in September -- it wouldn’t have been surprising had he contemplated retirement. But given all the obstacles he’s overcome in his career, it’s even less surprising that he’s decided to return.

He was named the NBA Finals MVP in 2004 and made five All-Star teams from 2006-2010. He’s won gold medals playing for Team USA in the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and 2010 FIBA World Championship, and he was in the running to play in the Olympic games this summer before suffering his injury.

Although the official diagnosis wasn’t discovered until this afternoon, several players in the Clippers’ locker room immediately suspected the worst, as HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler reported hearing players hint that Billups had suffered a tear and was “done.”

“All I can say is that it was very quiet in the locker room and very quiet on the bus and very quiet on the plane because everyone knows how important Chauncey is and how much they respect him and what he brings to the team,” Del Negro told reporters after practice Tuesday before learning the diagnosis. “You feel bad for him more than anything. So, we’ll see what the results are and go from there.”