Ice Cube might've just broken news about Chauncey Billups joining the Cavaliers
The week leading up to the draft has been bananas in the NBA, so Ice Cube potentially breaking one of the biggest stories of the offseason seems like an appropriate way to wrap up the past seven days.
Following David Griffin’s abrupt departure from his post as general manager of the Cavaliers on Monday, former Detroit Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups emerged as the leading candidate to take over as president of basketball operations in Cleveland, per The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
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On Wednesday, Cube told TMZ Sports that Billups, who was slated to serve as captain of the Killer 3’s in the rapper’s BIG3 3-on-3 basketball league debuting this summer, had taken the job with the Cavs.
“It was the Killer 3’s for a minute,” he said, “but since Chauncey took that job, it might change.”
I’m not sure what’s more impressive: That Ice Cube might’ve just broken a massive NBA story or that he conducted this entire interview while posing for a series of selfies with a bunch of random fans.
We should’ve known Cube would be breaking NBA news someday, ever since he rapped about dribbling the funk and getting triple-doubles in the early 1990s. After going from NWA to starring in a PG movie called “Are We There Yet?” and launching a 3-on-3 basketball league starring both Allen Iverson and Brian Scalabrine, why wouldn’t we think he could become a news-breaking journalist?
There’s something comforting in Ice Cube breaking NBA news. Instead of press releases, commissioner Adam Silver should just release videos with Cube reading statements as people take selfies with him.
Running a league littered with plugged-in NBA types from Billups to Charles Oakley and Dr. J, O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson has more sources than most, but he might’ve wanted a second one on this story.
As of early Thursday morning, Billups and the Cavaliers had not yet finalized a deal to make the 2004 Finals MVP the team’s president, according to Associated Press reporter Tom Withers and Wojnarowski:
Told nothing official on Billups front. Sorry, Mr. Cube. #Cavs
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) June 21, 2017
Sources: Discussions between Cleveland and Chauncey Billups continue about President of Basketball Ops job, but no formal offer's been made.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) June 22, 2017
Still, just because he hasn’t formally been offered the job yet, that doesn’t mean Billups hasn’t already informed Cube that he’s withdrawing from the BIG3 to join an NBA front office, so ol’ O’Shea may still be proven right. In which case, look for him to break the news about DeShawn Stevenson replacing Phil Jackson as president of basketball operations for the New York Knicks real soon.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
NBA draft coverage from Yahoo Sports:
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• The Vertical’s team-by-team NBA draft guide