If you were watching the MLB All-Star Game instead of a Portland Trail Blazers Summer League matchup, you might’ve missed Chauncey Billups using his brief in-game interview to send a message, not just to ESPN, but to the national media as a whole.
NBA head coaches don’t run Summer League benches. That job typically falls to assistants or G-League staffers, which opens the door for in-game interviews with sitting head coaches. Think Jordi Fernández of the Brooklyn Nets reacting live to an absolute gaffe. Or Billups, who used his moment to respond to a question about defense with something a lot more pointed.
In what seemed like a fairly innocuous question, Cory Alexander brought up how Billups’ Blazers won the Summer League a few years ago, hinting at how their defense back then might shape the team’s identity moving forward. Alexander noted that every organization starts on the defensive end, and then asked Billups if the current trend of teams applying full-court pressure — picking up 94 feet — would be something we’d see more from Portland. He specifically referenced how that style took off with Jrue Holiday’s lockdown defense on Chris Paul during the 2021 NBA Finals.
Alexander wanted to know if that aggressive full-court defense would be a bigger part of the Blazers’ approach going forward, especially with Holiday now on the Blazers.
That’s when Billups pushed back.
“Well, most of the world — and even you, now that I hear this question — y’all didn’t really see us play last year,” said Billups. “That’s what we do. We pick up full court every single time. Toumani Camara is maybe one of the best in the league at picking up a guy end-to-end. That’s what we do already. And to y’all’s point, when you have a young team and you’re trying to build and you’re trying to get your culture together and your identity together, you start there on the defensive end. And all of our guys know that’s where we hang our hat.”
Billups kind of putting ESPN/national media on blast here.
He was asked about how the Blazers could build a defensive mentality and he basically said – yall don’t watch us, we’re already doing that.
— Danny Marang (@DannyMarang) July 16, 2025
And the numbers back up Billups. According to Barstool’s Dan Greenberg, from January 1 through the end of the season — a 50-game stretch — Portland ranked sixth in defensive rating (111.3). For context, the Orlando Magic were fourth at 111.1, and the Boston Celtics third at 110.8. After the All-Star break, the Blazers climbed to fourth in the league defensively, solidifying their status as one of the NBA’s stingiest units.
This isn’t the first time a small-market team has put ESPN or the national media on blast, and it won’t be the last.
Charles Barkley GOES OFF about Lakers/Warriors coverage (and LeBron James/Michael Jordan debates) from “the fools on the other network (ESPN), which we’re going to be working for next year.” 🏀📺🎙️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥☠️ pic.twitter.com/0RyvL0H4ix
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2025
A lot of NBA coverage has been under heavy fire lately for its shallow analysis and perceived bias. And as long as teams like Portland stay off the national radar, you can expect more moments like this one.