Kind of interesting -- Chauncey Billups signed a "lifetime" deal with adidas:
He is covered through his career and after retirement. Billups said in a phone interview that he and his agent, Andy Miller, approached Adidas with the deal.
"I wanted to sign for the duration of my career and beyond," the Denver native said. "They were all for it, and we'll have a great partnership. What I do with them after my career depends on what I do. They'd certainly help me with anything, like kids' programs."
Miller, who also represents Antonio McDyess, was in town yesterday, and Chris McCosky of the Detroit News spoke with him:
"My feeling is that with Chauncey, it's about his full body of work since he's been with the Pistons and nothing has changed," [Miller] said. "He's still the top free agent in the market place."
Billups reiterated what he said after the Game 6 loss. He wants to be here. He wants to retire as a Piston. He's genuine when he says that. One thing about Billups, he's a straight shooter. He stood in that hot, cramped locker room for 40 minutes after the game talking to one wave of media after another. He answered every question, he accepted blame, he made no excuses. If Billups had a problem with the Pistons, he would have said so. It's going to come down to money, it always does. Unlike with Ben Wallace, though, the Pistons seem to be more willing to open the wallet a little wider and dig a little deeper to keep Billups.
Eventually, Miller and Dumars will discuss hammering out an extension for McDyess, who has a player option worth $6.37 million for next year. That number is very close to what the mid-level exception will be for next year, so given that, it might behoove the Pistons to extend him and save the exception for another free agent.
Also, Flip Murray doesn't expect to opt-out of his contract ($1.89 million) and Dale Davis is suddenly thinking about postponing retirement. He didn't rule out re-signing with Detroit, but I will, unless it's part of some type of sign-and-trade. As for Flip Saunders, there's nothing new on that front - he expects to be back this season. I'll probably weigh on that with my own thoughts sometime in the next day or so.