PORTLAND — It will be a long time before the Portland Trail Blazers are able to process the pre-dawn arrest Thursday of head coach Chauncey Billups in a federal investigation related to rigged poker games backed by the Mafia.
But the process of moving forward began Friday as they played their first game under new coach Tiago Splitter and beat the Golden State Warriors 139-119 at the Moda Center.
“Honestly, it is a tough moment,” said Splitter, a former player for the San Antonio Spurs whose only head coaching experience before Friday came in the Euro League with Paris Basketball last season. “I mean we all had great experience with Chauncey, and we are thinking of him and his family. But we have a job to do and we have to move forward.”
Splitter and general manager Joe Cronin addressed the team Thursday afternoon just hours after Billups’ stunning arrest. Neither had slept more than a few hours when news of the arrest started spreading. Splitter told ESPN that he went to bed around 2 a.m. after watching tape of the Blazers’ season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and was woken up shortly after 6 a.m. when news reports started to spread.
A few hours later, Splitter was in Cronin’s office being asked to take over as the head coach. Lead assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren had previous head coaching experience, but team sources said Bjorkgren had earlier come to Cronin and told him that Splitter was the best choice to take over and he felt he could best help the team in his current role, running the defense.
Billups had recruited Splitter away from a head coaching role with Paris Basketball over the summer to help revamp the Blazers’ offense and he’d been implementing changes over the past few months.
This kind of promotion, under these circumstances, was less than ideal.
“I have to be ready,” he said. “I was ready, I am ready.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr didn’t know Splitter well, but their paths and circles have many intersections.
“I met with him in Paris last year during the Olympics,” Kerr said. “David Kahn, the owner [of Paris Basketball], texted e and asked if I would meet with Tiago. We spent some time together. Had a great visit. Then he was wildly successful winning the French league, getting rave reviews. David told me what an amazing coach he thought he was. He said he thought he’d be an NBA head coach someday. Nobody wants it to be under these circumstances. But there’s a reason Tiago is here. He’s a talented guy.”
Beating the Warriors — even a tired version of the Warriors on the second night of a back-to-back — was as good of a start and palate cleanser as Splitter and the Blazers could’ve hoped for after Billups arrest and arraignment on Thursday.
Deni Avdija led Portland with 26 points on 11 of 18 shots. Jerami Grant added 22 points off the bench and all five Blazers starters finished in double figures. Portland shot 54 percent from the field and hit 16 of 34 3-pointers (47 percent).