What's up people? It's been a while, but I'm back with another NBA Roundup for you. It's do or die time for everyone trying to get in the playoffs, and for those already in but looking to improve their stading in the seedings. These last eight or nine games that everyone has will determine awards, firings, and new contracts so don't believe the mainstream media hype about the NBA season not meaning anything. I'll be getting into that more soon, but first I have to get to the topic of the week as far as the NBA goes:
Farewell, C-Webb
Webber and I are around the same age, and it's weird as heck to see his career ending while mine still has a long way to go. Few players have generated the full range of emotions among those who watched them as much as Webber did during his time in the league, and you can count me among those who ran through the whole gamut of them. I've felt excited, proud, angry, and disappointed with him at different times, often at the same time. I've been overly critical and overly supporftive, and never without good reason in my mind. There have been times where he was one of my favorites and times where I had no use for him at all. I felt proud when he and his Fab Five mates got to the title game as freshman, and I felt sympathy after the whole time out debacle. I was elated when he was traded to Washington where I'd get to watch he and Juwan recapture some of the Fab Five glory up close, and then angry when he couldn't stop getting into trouble. Not Pac Man Jones or Rae Carruth trouble, but just a bunch of stupid things that you would expect a grown man who was raised right to avoid. I was hopeful when he got his chance for redemption in Sacramento, and sad for him again when they lost to the Lakers in that game seven. When he blew out his knee, I knew the end was coming and was disappointed more than anything else, because I knew his legacy would be more about how much money he made and how much he failed rather than how talented he was and how much he did accomplish.
No one had as much to work with entering the league as he did. He could score in the post or with the jumper, could lead the break and finish on it, could play like Magic for stretches and then like Karl Malone for others. He averaged 20 points and just under 10 rebounds for his career, and that's when you include the this season and the one before it, when he clearly was not the player he used to be and his numbers were a lot lower. The strength of that alone says put him in. But his failures when it mattered most say keep him out. Webber's performances in big games usually went like this: greatness early on but nothing in crunch time. It wasn't uncommon for him to finish a game with 25 points, but only 5 in the fourth quarter and none in the final three minutes. And his team almost always would lose. If you look back at the biggest wins of his career, someone else always took the big shots be it Jalen Rose when they were at Michigan or Mike Bibby in Sacramento. You can't ignore that.
And that's not even counting the character inconsistencies he's had. On the one hand very few guys are more learned, articulate, and thoughtful as he is. On the other hand, very few guys have taken all that he was blessed with and made dumber decisions, from taking Ed Martin's money at Michighan to all the minor dustups he got into during his years in Washington. Like I said before, not serious crimes but a lot of stupid things, in addition to an alleged weed habit that was never confirmed but often insinuated. During his final season in Washington, he was supposed to be the leader of a team that was going to reach new heights after making the playoffs the season before. But instead of getting better they treaded water for a whole season, playing listless .500 ball and losing Lord knows how many winnable games. They finished 42-40 and missed the playoffs, which was unacceptable for a team with their talent. Another stupid incident occured that saw he and Juwan accused of sexual assault, and even though the charges went away when the accuser was uncovered as a serial con artist, Wizards owner Abe Pollin decided he'd had enough, along with many of the fans here. Webber was dealt for change on the dollar, and I was more angry about what the Wizards got in return than I was with them for trading him away.
I was happy that he did better in Sacramento, but for the most part I was done with him. Not just for blowing it in Washington, but for his penchant for flat out not wanting the ball in crunch time. I don't know if the timeout thing spooked him for the rest of his career or what, but that guy wanted no part of the ball in the last five minutes of any tight game. He was Dirk Nowitzki with a post up game when it came to shouldering the load. That game seven against the Lakers summed up his NBA career better than anything else: good overall stat line, nothing in the fourth quarter, and a loss at the end. And that was the thing with Webber: you liked him, you wanted him to win, and you wanted to defend him against the hack writers and sports radio hosts who treated him as if he'd done something to them personally whenever they talked about him (seriously, he was the anti-Favre on sports radio in DC). But while it's easy to defend him as a great talent who was a very good player, you can't compare him to even the guys guys who were great but didn't win a ring like Charles and Patrick. Those guys did win some big NBA games and did lead their teams to the Finals while Webber did not, and you just can't ignore that.
So close but so far away. That's how I'd sum up Chris Webber's NBA career.
Yes!!!! The roundball
Look how far we have fallen to where Ron Artest is our best player
I keep the fade TIGHT