IN: Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz pianist/electric keyboardist and composer. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta" and "Windows", are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed the fusion band Return to Forever.

In the 1970s Corea started working with vibraphonist Gary Burton, with whom he recorded several duet albums for ECM, including 1972's Crystal Silence. They reunited in 2006 for a concert tour. A new record called The New Crystal Silence was issued in 2008 and won a Grammy Award in 2009. The package includes a disc of duets and another disc with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.  Toward the end of the 1970s, Corea embarked on a series of concerts and two albums with Hancock. These concerts were presented in elegant settings with both pianists dressed formally and performing on Yamaha concert grand pianos. The two traded playing each other's compositions, as well as pieces by other composers such as Bela Bartok. In 1982, Corea performed The Meeting, a live duet with the classical pianist Friedrich Gulda.  In December 2007 Corea recorded a duet album, The Enchantment, with banjoist Bela Fleck. Fleck and Corea toured extensively for the album in 2007. Fleck was nominated in the Best Instrumental Composition category at the 49th Grammy Awards for the track "Spectacle".  In 2008 Corea collaborated with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara on the live album Duet (Chick Corea and Hiromi). The duo played a concert at Tokyo's Budokan arena on April 30.  In 2015 Corea reprised the duet concert series with Hancock, again sticking to a dueling-piano format, though both also had synthesizers at their station. The first concert in this series was played at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, and featured improvised music along with iconic songs from each of the duo and standards from other composers.

What came of the duets?

OUT: They reunited in 2006 for a concert tour.


IN: Chauncey Ray Billups (born September 25, 1976) is an American retired professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A star at the University of Colorado, he was selected third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. A five-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA selection, Billups played for the Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Clippers during his NBA career. He won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004 after helping the Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, and was given the nickname "Mr. Big Shot" for making late-game shots with Detroit.

On November 3, 2008, Billups was traded to the Denver Nuggets, along with Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb, for Allen Iverson. Pistons GM Joe Dumars said that it was "the hardest and toughest" move he had made as a general manager, describing Billups as "... a guy that I have looked at as a little brother."  Billups chose the #7 jersey to honor Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, since two of his other favorite numbers, 1 and 4, were already worn by J. R. Smith and Kenyon Martin, respectively. He played his first game of the Nuggets' 2008-09 season on November 7, 2008. He recorded 15 points, four rebounds and three assists in 30 minutes of play in a 108-105 Nuggets' home win. He finished the season averaging 17.7 points, and 6.4 assists per game.  With Billups and Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets accomplished a number of franchise milestones. Their 54-28 record matched a franchise record, and their 27-14 start was also a franchise record for wins in the first half of a season. This also marked the first time in the franchise's history the team had gotten 50 wins in back-to-back seasons. They led the Northwest division for much of the season, eventually winning the division and gaining the number two seed in the Western Conference, matching the highest the team had ever been seeded for the playoffs. In the first round, they defeated the New Orleans Hornets in 5 games, which included a record-equaling 58-point margin-of-victory. Billups also set a Nuggets franchise record with the most 3 pointers in a playoff game with 8, and his 19 3-pointers in total is also a Nuggets record for threes made in a playoff series. In his first year with the Nuggets, Billups led them back to the NBA Conference Finals for the first time since 1985. They would play the Lakers for the second straight year (the Lakers had swept them in the first round the year before). The Nuggets would ultimately lose the series 4-2. This was Billups' 7th straight conference finals. He joined Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kurt Rambis as the only players to accomplish this feat since the Boston Celtics of the 1950s and 1960s led by Bill Russell. Billups finished the season sixth in voting for the 2009 NBA Most Valuable Player Award. He was also selected to his second All-NBA Third Team.  For the 2009-10 season, Billups reverted to wearing #1, the same number he wore with the Pistons. Teammate J. R. Smith, who had previously worn #1 since being acquired by the Nuggets in 2006, changed to the #5 jersey. On November 27, 2009, in the Nuggets' 128-125 win over the New York Knicks, Billups scored 32 points while teammate Carmelo Anthony scored 50. This made them only the third duo in NBA history to score at least 30 and 50 points respectively. On February 5, 2010, Billups set a career high in points with a 39-point performance in a road win over the Los Angeles Lakers with 27 of them coming from 9 three-pointers. During the 2010-11 season, he averaged 16.5 points per game, 5.3 assists per game, and 2.5 rebounds per game in 32.3 minutes per game. His .441 three point field goal percentage was a career high.

Was he happy with this decision?

OUT:
Pistons GM Joe Dumars said that it was "the hardest and toughest" move he had made as a general manager,