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A King Without a Crown The decline and fall of an NBA star by Ben Yaster Where did it go wrong for Chris Webber? For the last decade, CWebb's been the prophesized one, the player who could take a franchise to the promised land of sprayed champagne and regal rings, the land of champions. Throughout high school, his two years of college at Michigan, and his tumultuous pro career, the fabbest of the Fab Five has always been the big dog (regardless of whatever that tubby, midrange jump-shooting swingman down in Atlanta calls himself). |
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A big man with soft hands who can run, pass, shoot, and finish - no, bury - the break with one of those nasty one-handed jams on some poor defender's head, Chris Webber changed the way power forwards play. Instead of just parking his ass in the post and setting screens, CWebb defies convention with a dizzying array of no-look passes, 20-foot jumpshots, and even a little shake and bake for those cement-footed forwards and centers who get paid to clog the lane and hack-a-Shaq.
Sure - there have been some minor embarrassing moments in Webber's career. That rap album he quietly put out a couple years ago? Hey, if Gheorghe "Ready to Play" Muresan can get a movie, anything's fair game. Getting dropped by Nike a couple years ago? Cwebb played it off with aplomb, condemning Nike's triple-figure shoe prices as an unfair burden upon the poor. Webber: preacher of the social gospel, voice of the common man? Hmmm...maybe not. But he is nailing Tyra Banks. Webber: living fantasy of the common man? I think so. However, the list of major mistakes and fiascos that have tainted his career have kept Webber from reaching his sensationalized hype and awesome - not to mention legitimate - potential. Where to even start? There was that timeout incident back at Michigan in the 1992 NCAA title game. With no college title, the Fab Five break up, and don't finish as the best college team ever. Then, Webber, as the first pick of the 1993 draft and benefactor of a 15-year, $74 million contract from Golden State, gets into a bitter public feud with then-coach Don Nelson. CWebb won Rookie of Year accolades, but by 1994's preseason, Nelson was out of a job while Webber forfeited his dough and was shipped out to Washington. Washington insider Things looked up in Washington. The Bullets, who hadn't had a playoff team in what seemed like eons, were on the rise. With seven-foot-seven Romanian center Muresan, who then had two working knees, banging the boards and guarding the paint, and later, Rod Strickland dropping dimes like a boozing panhandler, the pieces were beginning to come together. But it was Washington's first round pick of Michigan's small forward Juwan Howard that had sports columnists speculating and Chocolate City fans salivating - Juwan Howard and Chris Webber, arguably the best two-fifths of one of the greatest college teams, would suit up again and light up the league with their baggy shorts, erudite usage of four-letter words, and monstrous game. Following in the Fab Five legacy of underachievement, Ann Arbor's finest found their way to the playoffs only once and got manhandled by the Phil, Scottie, and his Airness in the first round. Webber and Howard both got paid well - too well - and Washington was having trouble shelling out big dollars to two players leading their team into mediocrity. By the '97-'98 season, as the Bullets were re-christened the Wizards, Webber's magic had run out. His stats were still up, but a disgruntled Webber barely brought the promising Wizards above the 500 mark. Then, Webber got busted for marijuana possession - twice. The drugs and a later frivolous sexual assault charge marked CWebb as a sour caricature for the modern NBA player - tremendously talented, but overpaid and lascivious, if not dangerously criminal. Boom-shaka-laka In 1998, Webber was dealt to the Sacramento Kings for Mitch Richmond, and thrown into the NBA's cellar. The Kings couldn't have been a more ironic team name - they hadn't cracked a .500 winning percentage since moving to Sacto in 1985. With Webber and rookie point guard Jason "White Chocolate" Williams, the team seemed less motivated in ascending basketball's throne than in just getting high. But with CWebb, J-Dub, and an aging but tireless Vlade Divac, the Kings did the inconceivable and made the playoffs in 2000 and 2001, with hours of highlights featuring behind-the-back passes, long threes, and lots of dunks. And like with all things Chris Webber, there was controversy. First, there was the seven-year, $123 million contract the Kings doled out. There was no doubt about Webber's ability. The question was about his heart. In the 2001 playoffs, Webber inexplicably disappeared in the second round series against the Lakers. As CWebb threw up weak elbow jumpers, Kobe sliced and diced the Kings' D, and Shaq made Scott Pollard look like, well, Scott Pollard. Again, there were the whispers about CWebb's underachieving. Getting to the playoffs was nice but Sacto was coming closer and closer to winning it all. It was uncertain if Chris Webber was the player who would take them there. That is, until this year. Sacramento, in the trade of the season, dealt Jason Williams and his awful turnover-to-assist ratio for Mike Bibby, the diamond in that massive rough that was the Vancouver Grizzlies. Webber, Bibby, and company took the Lakers to game seven of the Western Conference Finals; had they made some free throws in the clutch, Sacramento would have been anointed the Kings of the league. Things were looking up for the 2002-2003 season. The Kings signed Bibby to a longterm contract and nabbed free agent center Keon Clark, a sleeper from Toronto who plays a foot above the rim. But Chris Webber, in an act of near-regicide, may have killed the Kings. Webber was indicted on September 9 for lying under oath in 2000. Ed Martin, Michigan basketball booster and AAU stalwart, allegedly gave Webber $280,000 in cash, clothes, and gifts during his time as a Wolverine. During his 2000 trial, Webber vehemently denied any wrongdoing before a grand jury. In May, Ed Martin pled guilty to conspiracy to launder money and, in the laundering process, giving gifts to Webber and other Michigan basketball players. What's not helping Webber's case is that former Wolverines Robert Traylor, Maurice Taylor, and Jalen Rose, another member of the Fab Five, have all admitted to taking Martin's money. Should CWebb be convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of ten years in jail and the Lakers will keep on winning rings until Shaq's big toe falls off. Chris Webber, the hyped and prophesized one, is less the messiah than he is the prodigal son. Blessed with the physical gifts, knowledge, and vision to be one of the greatest ball players of his time, CWebb has a knack for spoiling it all both on and off the hardwood. And, at age 29, he doesn't have another ten years to marinate and establish Sacramento as the true land of kings. If BEN YASTER B'05 keeps sending in articles without by-lines, we're going to start revealing his personal secrets. fact #1: Yaster sleeps with a stuffed rhino named Horny. |