Billups Key Addition for Team USA's World Championships Player Pool

Filed under: Nuggets

When Chris Paul went down with a knee injury last month, there became even more of a sense of urgency for USA Basketball to have another veteran point guard in the mix for the World Championships this summer in Turkey.

It's Chauncey Billups to the rescue.

FanHouse has learned the Denver Nuggets point guard has agreed to have his name in a list of about 25 players that will be announced Wednesday by USA Basketball. The pool of players, which USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said could number as many as 28, eventually will be cut to 12 for the Aug. 28-Sept. 12 World Championships.

Billups has a very good chance of making the final roster. Team USA does have Utah's Deron Williams at the point remaining from the 2008 Summer Olympics, but lost Dallas veteran Jason Kidd after he decided to retire from international competition.

The ranks at point guard might have gotten thinner due to Paul having knee surgery last week, which will keep him out of action until at least early March. It remains to be seen what the New Orleans star's level of interest in playing this summer will be due to the injury.

After Paul got hurt, USA stepped up its interest in Billups, who played for Team USA in the 2007 Olympic qualifying tournament before bowing out before the 2008 Olympics due to family reasons.

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/02/09/billups-key-addition-for-team-usas-world-championships-player-p/