KUSA - The 2015 Colorado Sports Hall of Fame class is another impressive one. Five time NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups and Major League pitcher Roy Halladay, the two-time Cy Young winner, are no doubt the headliners.
Six in all will be inducted on April 2, 2015. John Dikeou, John Gagliardi, Becky Hammon and Warren Mitchell were selected as well, while the Selection Committee will pick the 2014 Athletes-of-the-Year at a January 2015 meeting as the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame recognizes collegiate, high school, Olympic and professional athletes at the Denver Marriott City Center banquet.
During Billups' 17-season NBA career with seven teams, he played in 1,043 regular-season games where he averaged 15.2 points and 5.4 assists per game. Selected third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, Billups played with the Celtics (1997-1998), Toronto Raptors (1998-1999), Minnesota Timberwolves (2000-2002), New York Knicks (2011) and Los Angeles Clippers (2001-2013). He was hired Tuesday by ESPN as an NBA studio analyst for the 2014-2015 season.
Billups went to High School at George Washington, while Halladay prepped at Arvada West. An eight-time All-Star, Halladay pitched 16 seasons in the Major Leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays (1998-2009) and the Philadelphia Phillies (2010-2013) where he posted a 203-105 record with a 3.38 earned run average and 2,117 strikeouts. He completed 67 of his 390 MLB starts with 20 shutouts. Halladay, who won 20 or more games in a season three times (2003, 2008 and 2010), is one of five pitchers in MLB history to win the Cy Young Award in both the American (2003) and National (2010) Leagues.
A Denver real estate businessman, Dikeou purchased the Denver Bears in 1984 and its Major League Baseball territorial rights with the intent of bringing a big league team to the Mile High City. He began his campaign by renaming the team the Denver Zephyrs and hiring Robert Howsam, Jr. (the Howsam family had been involved with MLB since 1910) to be the team's General Manager.
Since its inception in 1965, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame has inducted 234 individuals prior to Tuesday's selection meeting.
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