Chauncey Billups: LeBron James Would’ve Left Cavs Even Earlier Had Pistons Drafted Carmelo Anthony

We all know about The Decision Show in Cleveland. It took place in 2010, when LeBron James went on ESPN and announced he was leaving for the Miami Heat in free agency.

But then-Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, now the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, said James would have left a lot sooner had the Pistons just selected Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 NBA Draft.

James was the No. 1 overall pick in that draft. Anthony went No. 3 to the Denver Nuggets. The Pistons, who were a championship contender as was, took Darko Milicic at No. 2.

Now, it was a bad choice. Most knew that at the time and we certainly know it now. But despite passing on Anthony, the Pistons won the NBA championship, upsetting the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals behind the likes of Billups, Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince. The coach was the legendary Larry Brown.

The Pistons advanced to the Finals again the next season, losing to Tim Duncan and the mighty San Antonio Spurs in seven games. Milicic was a bit contributor, if that.

Meanwhile, Anthony was going nuts in Denver. He and James had quite the young-guy rivalry. But imagine if the Pistons had added Anthony to a lineup that was already an NBA power. All they had to do was take him at No. 2 when they had the chance.

Billups addressed exactly that on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast.

“(LeBron) would have had to leave Cleveland even earlier,” Billups said, predicting that the Pistons would have won at least three championships. “(The Cavs) never would have beat us.”

But James and the Cavs did just that, with Cleveland advancing to the 2007 NBA Finals, its first such appearance in franchise history.

You know the story from there, as James played four seasons with the Heat, returned to Cleveland, and led the Cavs to four straight Finals appearances. They won their lone title in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Pistons are coming up on the 20th anniversary of their last Finals appearance. And Billups is right. Had they just drafted Anthony when they had the chance … well, NBA history may look quite a bit different.

“Bron would have had to leave Cleveland even earlier."

Melo and Chauncey Billups discuss one of the biggest questions in NBA History: What if Melo had gone to the Pistons?

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— 7PM in Brooklyn (@7PMinBrooklyn) July 23, 2024