For the last seven years of his NBA career, every time Chauncey Billups would come to Portland to play the Trail Blazers, he said he would find anybody who would listen and ask them one question:
Where is Joe Cronin?
“Every time I came into town to play them, I would look for Joe,” Billups said. “I was like, ‘Yo, where is Joe Cronin at?’ But all of the years doing that, I hadn’t seen this dude. Never seen him. Never. Never seen him even once.”
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He wanted to set eyes on Cronin because of a March day in 1994 in Denver, Colo. It’s when Billups was a high school junior, and he led George Washington High School to its second consecutive Colorado Class 6A state championship. The star on Horizon High, the opponent, was a burly 6-foot-6 center named Joe Cronin.
“I was 10 years into my NBA career, and I was looking at the front offices around the league, and I see Joe Cronin’s name,” Billups remembered. “And I wondered to myself: Is that the Joe Cronin? So I started asking questions. And I wanted to see a picture. I wanted to see if this was actually Joe.”
Indeed, the Trail Blazers had hired an intern in the summer of 2006 named Joe Cronin. By 2007-08, when Billups started asking around, the Blazers’ Cronin had graduated from intern to scouting assistant. By 2011-12, Cronin was the assistant director of scouting and the team’s salary cap analyst.
Life as a scout in the NBA means endless days on the road, watching college prospects, sitting in airports, checking in-and-out of hotels. Billups said his questions never led to any connection. No information. No pictures. No background. And no most of all, no Joe.
Fast forward to the summer of 2021. Billups emerges as a candidate for the Trail Blazers’ head coaching position. When then-general manager Neil Olshey began interviewing Billups, the candidate interrupted him.
“When this opportunity came up, and I was talking to Neil, I was like: ‘Where is Joe? I need to see Joe. I need to make sure this is the same dude,”’ Billups said.
Eventually, as the process unfolded and Billups became a finalist, he was interviewed by the Blazers’ team of executives. A Zoom teleconference was arranged, and included on the call was one of the Blazers’ assistant general managers, Joe Cronin.
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As the cameras popped on before the Zoom conference started, Billups’ hunch from years ago was correct. There, in a little box on his computer screen, was that familiar face. It was the Joe Cronin. The Horizon center from that March day in 1994.
Six months later, the serendipitous reunion has taken another twist. Cronin on Dec. 5 was promoted to interim general manager, replacing the fired Olshey. Now, the Blazers’ biggest decisions on and off the court are being made by two men who squared off more than 27 years ago for the biggest prize in Colorado prep basketball.
“What a crazy story, just full circle,” said Dave Lawrence, Cronin’s coach at Horizon. “No way anybody could have imagined this when they were playing that game, that this would be in their future. What a nice thing to happen to both of them.”
The irony?
More than 27 years after Billups had 31 points and nine assists to lead George Washington to a 71-67 win, which came despite 22 points and 15 rebounds from Cronin, the power dynamic has shifted. Cronin as Blazers’ general manager, has the power to fire Billups, the coach.
“I’ve been waiting a loooooooong time for this,” Cronin said while laughing.
Much like their paths to the top of the Trail Blazers, Cronin and Billups took different routes to the 1994 title game.
While Billups was a nationally-heralded player who won Colorado’s player of the year as a freshman and sophomore, Cronin was a relative unknown, still toiling on junior varsity. In fact, at Horizon, Cronin was known more for being a brain than he was for being a baller. His sister, Katie, was the star and would later become the girls’ basketball state player of the year and go on to play at Colorado State.
“Joe was a good, average player,” Lawrence said. “But after his sophomore year, he had this dedication.”
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Cronin hit the weight room. And he honed his skills. Cronin said he added 20 pounds and grew an inch, to 6-foot-6.
“I just wanted to get better,” Cronin said. “So I really worked.”
When Cronin reported to practice for the beginning of his junior season, Lawrence was stunned.
“It was like, ‘Who are you?’ … He had become a force,” Lawrence said. “I’ve been coaching a long time (since 1984) and very few kids made the strides in such a short amount of time like he did.”
Before his junior year, Cronin was more notable for his appearance.
“Two things he was known for was his hair and always wearing the same jacket,” said Dean Grable, his friend and teammate. “We called him ‘Kramer’ because he had the same hair as the Seinfeld character, and he wore this old-school Lakers jacket all the time. He loved the Lakers.”
Now transformed into a physical specimen, Cronin fit in perfectly with the Hawks. Donned in their maroon and silver colors, the Hawks had an unmistakable identity, akin to the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boys. The backcourt featured the muscle-bound Grable twins, Dean and Keith. The forwards were the starting middle linebacker and starting cornerback on the football team. At center was their mobile wrecking ball: Cronin. The Hawks made their opponents feel them.
“Our defense is what we were known for,” Lawrence said. “We were just a group of strong and tough kids who pressed and played defense. Refs hated to call our games, because you could probably call a foul on every possession. We were elbowing, pushing, bumping … coaches, kids, parents — they would all get upset with us. But that was our style.”
Added Dean Grable: “We didn’t take any crap. We hammered guys. We were like Bill Laimbeer on the Bad Boys Pistons. That’s what we grew up watching and that’s how we played. All out, all the time.”
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In the middle of it all was Cronin. He was featured at the high post, and he would either pick apart the defense with his passes, or he would drive to the rim, few willing to stand in the way of the muscles in motion.
“If we got him the ball, it was like, get out of the way,” Lawrence said. “One way or another, he was getting to the rim. He also got a lot of stuff off offensive rebounds.”
They were almost the exact opposite of George Washington, the reigning Class 6A champions. In their green-and-white uniforms, the Patriots rose to a No. 1 ranking behind their finesse and athleticism.
“We were all about running and dunking,” Billups remembers.
As George Washington was breezing through the tournament bracket in 1994, Billups kept his eye on Horizon on the other side of the bracket. He had known the Grable twins since sixth grade when he squared off against them in tournaments. Those meetings were heated, and physical, with several “dust-ups” as Billups called them.
The more he looked, the more Billups knew Horizon and George Washington were on a collision course.
“Those dudes, the twins, and Joe, they were running through people,” Billups said. “I didn’t know Joe that much. But he was on a tear, kicking butt all year. He was all-state, and for a reason. I mean, he was their best player. I only knew the twins, and I knew how hard they competed. So I was telling my team, ‘Man, we are really going to have to play … these guys play hard.”’
Sure enough, the two teams advanced to the final, even with Billups having an off night in the semifinal: 1-for-7 and fouling out.
Up ahead was a final to remember. There were missed dunks. Technicals. And an inbounds pass that later shared a moment with Kobe Bryant. And Cronin and Billups were in the middle of it all.
Horizon jumped out to a 14-2 lead, with Billups going scoreless until just fewer than three minutes remained in the first quarter. But what was getting lost in the big lead was how many fouls Billups was drawing.
“One of the twins, Keith, was a very athletic kid, and in my heart, I thought he would be able to keep up and defend Chauncey,” Lawrence said. “It was a coaching mistake. Keith was quick, but Chauncey was a half-step quicker. We couldn’t contain him, and we got into foul trouble early and it really hurt us in the end.”
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By halftime, the score was tied.
Then early in the second half came the play that is still talked about today, and that would later be linked to Kobe Bryant.
Billups was inbounding under his own basket, and the Hawks were playing a zone out-of-bounds defense.
“They are fronting everybody,” Billups said. “And the guy who is guarding me turns his back, to see what is going on.”
The guy who turned his back guarding him? Cronin.
“Cardinal sin,” Cronin said. “Turned my back to the ball. Next thing you know, I feel a thump off my back.”
Billups had thrown his inbounds pass off the back of Cronin.
“That’s what you learn on the street,” Billups said. “That’s a street-ball type thing.”
Startled and confused by the thump on his back, Cronin swirled around.
“I turned and Chauncey was raising up and dunking it,” Cronin said. “That’s playing the game the way it needs to be played. I thought it was smart of him.”
Dean Grable, who has been a high school coach for the past 18 years, said he brings up that play every season to his teams.
“It was the greatest play I’ve ever seen in high school,” Grable said. “It really speaks to Chauncey’s basketball IQ. I tell guys to this day: don’t take your eye off the ball, and I bring up that play. We call it ‘The Chauncey Play.”’
Billups still chuckles at the memory.
“It was my only option,” he said. “But I will say this, Joe is part of an exclusive group. I’ve done that only two times in my career: One to Joe Cronin. And one to Kobe Bryant.”
In Game 2 of the 2009 Western Conference finals between the Nuggets and Lakers, Billups was inbounding the ball with 3.2 seconds left in the first half when Bryant turned his back to front Carmelo Anthony cutting to receive a potential pass. Billups hit Bryant on the 2 of his No. 24 and took it in for a layin before the halftime buzzer.
“Kobe was sooooo mad at me,” Billups said. “Sooooo mad. Aw, he cussed me out. ‘That’s some bullshit, Chaunce!’ And I told him, ‘It’s bullshit you turned your back. How you think I felt?’ So, yeah, that’s pretty funny.”
For Cronin, he had worse memories in the game.
He missed two dunks. Was called for a technical for snapping the rim. And he fouled out.
“The thing I remember the most, and this has always stuck with me, is that we lost by four, and I missed two dunks,” Cronin said. “I just remember thinking, well, those two conversions might have helped.”
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The Grable twins haven’t let Cronin forget about the dunks.
“We always give him shit for it. All the time,” Dean Grable said. “We tell him, ‘Just finish off the play …’ We can laugh about it now, but our team, I think we were in mourning for at least a month after that game, just looking back at all the things like that that didn’t go our way.”
So how do two players from one state title game end up heading the Trail Blazers?
For Cronin, it’s a testament to his perseverance to realize a lifelong dream of running an NBA team.
“We could just tell, the way he studied players and how he knew everybody that he was really smart,” Grable said. “I remember running into him after college, and he said ‘Give me 15 or 20 years and I’ll be a GM.’ Now, look at him.”
Cronin went to graduate school and graduated with a degree in sports management. Straight out of college he joined the Blazers, and over 15 years has worked his way up to general manager.
Billups, meanwhile, finished a storied NBA career and dabbled in announcing and front office work before joining the staff of the LA Clippers last season. Too many people had told him he was a leader, and with his communication skills and his knowledge, he could reach today’s players.
Just like that Colorado state tournament bracket in 1994, Billups and Cronin were destined to collide.
The question is, would Billups recognize him? The high school senior who looked like Kramer has kept his fit figure, but he now shaves his head bald.
Cronin said he shaved his head before his senior year of high school, and when it grew back by basketball season, he found it didn’t fill in all the way in the front.
“Everyone said ‘You are going bald … and I was like, ‘No way! I’m 17!” Cronin said. “So then, I grew that mop I had in the (title) game, and I shaved it for good my freshman year of college.”
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Cronin’s shaved head didn’t stop Billups from recognizing him when he popped up on Zoom during one of Billups’ interviews. Still, the two had not yet met in person until June, when Billups arrived in Portland for his introductory press conference.
When Billups and his family walked in the front door of the team’s practice facility, a group of Blazers employees were waiting, Cronin among them.
“Man, I saw him and just got this big smile,” Billups said. “We had a big handshake, a big hug, and I just told him, ‘I’m so happy for you. I’m proud of you, bro.”’
Cronin said it was a scene he won’t forget.
“Just a really special moment,” Cronin said. “We had this big hug … and then it was so Chauncey, here it was a busy day, his special day, and he asks me about my sister, he asks me about the (Grable) twins. He wanted to talk about them, not about him. For him to ask about them was really neat.”
Now that Cronin has moved into the big seat, their connection seems even more relevant. A first-time coach, and a first-time general manager are leaning on each other, both anchored by their deep-rooted history.
“I know who he is, because I’ve known him since he was 17,” Cronin said. “And he is the same guy today as he was then. The trust is there. I know Chauncey Billups as a person, I know exactly what that is, and I’m very lucky to have him.”
Billups still shakes his head at the happenstance of it all.
“I just think it speaks to Joe’s incredible character and his work ethic, and being able to keep his head down and grind and make it through time and time again,” Billups said. “I mean, nobody knows him. Until now, nobody knows him. But the people within, in the NBA circles, he is very, very highly and well thought of because of who he is. He is wicked smart.”
And now, after years of looking for him, Billups just has to take a left out of his office and walk 10 feet into Cronin’s office. Up ahead is the opportunity to change a roster, and change the trajectory of a franchise. The only thing they can’t change is that March day in 1994.
“I keep thinking to myself how bizarre this is,” Billups said. “It’s really incredible that we have come back together like this.”
(Top photo: Bruce Ely / Portland Trail Blazers)
