SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Chauncey Billups was walking without a limp last night at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, looking chipper as he accepted the Mannie Jackson Human Spirit Award. Billups also received a warm handshake from commissioner David Stern during the pre-dinner cocktail hour.
Billups, whose left knee injury in Game 1 of the first-round series vs. the Celtics was a killer blow to the Knicks, might one day make it to Springfield for his basketball exploits.
But for now, Billups, still not 100 percent, is just trying to prove he can be a productive, healthy, floor general for the Knicks in 2011-12, if the lockout does not cancel the season.
“I think I got a lot to offer my team when the season starts,” Billups told The Post last night. “I’m looking forward to showing people I’m still me. I don’t have anything to prove. I’ve proved everything throughout my career. My body of work speaks for itself. However, I really wish I could’ve been healthy my whole time in New York and things would’ve been a lot different.”
Tonight is the main event with headliners Chris Mullin of Brooklyn and Dennis Rodman of Mars being enshrined into the Hall of Fame, along with Artis Gilmore.
Billups, the lone Knicks player with a championship ring (from the Pistons), was acquired in February in the Carmelo Anthony deal. But he promptly missed six games with a thigh injury, then took a bad step in Boston in the playoffs, suffering a severe knee strain that cost him the rest of the series. At 35, there’s concern about Billups’ health, but the five-time All-Star veteran also has a great upside.
Billups got cleared last week for individual workouts but still can’t play 5-on-5.
“I’m getting better. I’m just now starting to work on the court, individual workouts,” Billups said. “Not yet 5-on-5, but it’s feeling a lot better.”
The Knicks drafted defensive point guard Iman Shumpert with the 17th pick over Chris Singleton as insurance in case Billups gets injured again.
“I heard a lot of good things about him,” Billups said. “I never got chance to see him play. If things I heard about him is true, it will be a good pick for us.”A lockout-induced shortened season could reduce the wear and tear on Billups, but he said he’s not afraid of the potential three games in three nights.
“It’s not like I’m a 40-minute-a-night guy,” he said.
Unlike other players, Billups has no desire to play overseas.
“I’m really not thinking about it,” he said. “I haven’t really spoken to [agent] Andy Miller about it. I’m going to enjoy the rest. Hopefully the rest won’t be too much.”
Billups said he’s unsure if the lockout will cause the season to be lost.
“Of course I’m hopeful we’re going to have a season and I’ll be able to play this year in New York,” he said.
Billups, who walked in with his wife Piper, his high school sweetheart, was moved by the Hall award, given to players who “improve the community they serve.” Billups has a kids academy in his hometown Denver.
“It’s an unbelievable honor,” he said. “I always wanted to come to the Hall of Fame and check it out. This gives me an opportunity to do it.
“The things I got [the reward] for, I don’t do it for recognition because people need it to be done. The committee did a lot of research on my leadership academy in Denver that has an effect on a lot of kids.”
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Rodman, who created waves by wearing a shiny black tank top and big dark shades to yesterday’s formal press conference ceremony, said Mullin played in the wrong system in the NBA and could have been as good as Larry Bird if he were in the right place.
“Chris had the smoothest jump shot as a lefty — snap and pop and boom,” Rodman said. “He was smooth when he shot the ball. He could have been the second coming of Larry Bird. They had the same mannerisms and mindset.
“Chris Mullin is a very smart guy on the court like Larry Bird,” he added. “Chris had the opportunity. He was just in the wrong system in Golden State. If he would’ve been in Boston, he would’ve shined big time. That’s his type of game. Slow down, run the offense, come off picks and shoot it.
“He would’ve been big time. Being on a team like Golden State with what they called Run TMC, he was the slowest guy on that damn team. But he made the best of it. He scored 17,000 points. He deserves to be in.”
Mullin disagreed strongly, saying “Run TMC” with Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond was the best thing that ever happened to him after alcohol issues sidetracked him early in his career.
“It was just when I got my game together just got my life together,” Mullin said. “We were young energetic. [It was] just what I needed. It made the game easy for me. They had a lot of skills I didn’t have. Things I was able to do offset their limitations. They belong here.”