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Chauncey Billups retires: 'It's just time'

Raj Mehta / USA Today Sports

Five-time NBA All-Star and NBA champion Chauncey Billups has decided to call it a career.

"It's just time," Billups told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. "I know when it's time."

The 38-year-old was thought to have a handful of opportunities to continue playing this season, but coming off three consecutive injury-plagued years, the 2004 NBA Finals MVP has deemed it the right moment to walk away:

"My mind and my desire is still strong. I just can't ignore the fact that I haven't been healthy for three years. I can try again and get to a point where I think I can go, but I just can't sustain. Me not being able to play the way that I can play, that's when you kind of know it's that time....

"It's just time. I'm happy, excited. The game was very, very good to me. I felt like I was equally as good to the game the way I played it and the way I respected it and the way I carried myself through the process."

It's long been expected that the incredibly well-respected Billups would transition to coaching or to a front office when his playing days were done. Those remain possible goals, as does television commentary (and damn, would he ever be good as a studio analyst), but they aren't immediate ones:

"Right now, I am kind of taking it easy. I have always said I had a desire to work in a front office somewhere or also do TV commentating or studio work. Those are the things I desire the most. But at the moment I'm enjoying taking it easy. We'll see where it leads."

Selected third overall in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics out of Colorado, Billups was given up on at multiple stops. After spending time with Boston, Toronto, Denver and Minnesota over his first five seasons, he finally landed with the Detroit Pistons ahead of the 2002-03 season.

Over the next seven years, Billups would endear himself to Pistons fans alongside Rip Hamilton, Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince, with that core and late addition Rasheed Wallace winning the 2004 NBA Finals.

From there, Billups returned to Denver, briefly stopped in with the New York Knicks, spent two seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers and, finally, returned to the Pistons for a final 19 games in 2013-14.

In 1,043 career games over 17 seasons, Billups averaged 15.2 points and 5.4 assists, shooting 38.7 percent on threes. He's among the league's top-100 all-time in minutes played, games played and 3-point percentage, ranks 39th in career assists, sits sixth in 3-pointers made and is fifth in free throw percentage with an 89.4 percent mark. 

Known as Mr. Big Shot, Billups also averaged 17.3 points and 5.7 assists over 146 playoff games and won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2010 World Championships. He has been named to the All-NBA Second Team once, the All-NBA Third Team twice, the All-Defensive Second Team twice and given the league's Citizenship Award (2008), Sportsmanship Award (2009) and Teammate of the Year award (2013).

Billups is probably on the bubble when it comes to the Hall of Fame discussion, as his peak - 17.3 points and 6.2 assists from 2002 to 2011 - doesn't pop off the page. It's something he's hopeful but realistic about:

"The Hall of Fame would be a big dream. It marks you down as one of the greatest players ever. It's not what I shot for, but that would absolutely be a dream. I know in my heart I had a Hall-of-Fame worthy career. If you look at most Hall of Famers, I don't know how many of them started off the way I started off and made it to the top....

"I don't know what will happen. I do feel I had a Hall-of-Fame career. But there have been a lot of Hall-of-Fame careers other than me."

Hall or otherwise, Billups retires as one of the best shooters of his generation, one of the most appreciated players around the league, and a Pistons legend.

Here's hoping we see him on a bench, in a front office, or on our televisions soon.

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