Chauncey Billups saw what happened to the Detroit Pistons and their fans when Ben Wallace left last summer for Chicago.

He wasn't going to put them through it again.

"This is the first city and the first organization to show me love," Billups said Monday. "They've helped me go from a pretty good player to an elite player, and I wasn't going to break their hearts."

Billups spoke before teeing off in his annual charity golf tournament at a joint press conference with Joe Dumars, Detroit's president of basketball operations. It was their first meeting with the media since Billups agreed to a five-year, $60 million contract earlier this month.

"You don't get many great players who are also great guys, and when you do, you don't let them go," Dumars said. "We had to go through the process, but we knew it was imperative that we keep him."