Blazers undeterred by past sexual assault allegations against Chauncey Billups

The Portland Trail Blazers are undeterred by the backlash over the hiring of Chauncey Billups as head coach, after many pointed out sexual assault allegations dating back to 1997.

On Friday, the Portland Trail Blazers made the decision to hire LA Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups as their next head coach. However, there were many not thrilled with the hire over Billups’ sexual assault allegations dating back to 1997.

Prior to Game 4 between the Clippers and the Phoenix Suns, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Trail Blazers were convinced that Billups was the guy they wanted for the job after meeting with him this past Wednesday. Wojnarowski later says in his segment that the team did an internal investigation into the allegations against Billups on Thursday and Friday before offering him the job.

Trail Blazers reportedly investigated Chauncey Billups’ sexual assault allegations before offering him job

Wojnarowski notes that Billups’ recounts of the events in 1997 matched up with what the team found out following their internal investigation. Hence why the team made Billups an offer to become their next head coach.

A woman known as Jane Doe alleged that Billups and then-former Celtics player Ron Mercer performed “multiple” unwanted sex acts on her at the condo of Antoine Walker. Billups denied the accusations, saying that he did not perform any non-consensual sex acts. Billups was never charged criminally, but he did settle the civil lawsuit with the woman in 2000. You can read the full details of the accusations in Jack Winter’s article for Sports Illustrated.

While the Trail Blazers did perform their own investigation and felt that the time was right to hire Billups, they will have to answer questions about it once they meet with the media when the contract becomes official.