Life Without Webber

When I sat down to write this, I planned to write about how much loving sports is sometimes like being in a bad relationship. One moment you’re loving life…you’re on top of the world. The next moment, you’re wondering why you ever fell for it in the first place and why you don’t just give it up altogether.

I felt that way when Randy Moss was traded to the Raiders (the ultimate high) only to wake up the next morning and see that the Kings traded Chris Webber to Philadelphia (the ultimate low).

Eventually, I decided that the Moss deal, while huge for my team, was not as important to me, or to my hometown as the Webber trade…so I wanted to focus on that entirely. But I wanted to give myself time to  process it logically. As emotional as I get during Kings games, I’ve always tried to be as objective as possible when forming my opinions on the franchise as a whole. I decided to wait and see how each team peformed once the guys in the trade began to mesh with their new teammates.

Since the trade, the teams have similar records. Allen Iverson and his Texas-sized heart is still carrying his team and the entire city of Philly on his 6-foot, 160-pound frame and the Kings still look like they’re in that season-long daze of theirs. In short, not much has changed. The Kings may have gained a little defensive muscle, but they lost some serious offensive punch when Webber was shipped out. Otherwise, believe it or not, I’m still struggling to get to the core of how I feel about all of this.

When it comes to Chris Webber, people either love him or hate him. Not me. I guess I’ve always been indifferent about him. Then again, maybe that’s not exactly true. I, like every other die-hard in the country, have followed his career since his days at the University of Michigan.

I was devastated when he called the timeout his team didn’t have in 1992–but only because I had two bucks riding on the Wolverines.

I hated him when he was down the road in Oakland, playing for the Warriors–but only because he was too good for them.

I delighted in his injury difficulites in Washington–but only because I never thought they’d cost the Kings a world championship.

When he came to Sacramento, I was unsure what to think. When I heard he nearly did not report to the team and called the day he landed at the airport, “the worst day of my life,” I had the normal reaction: If he doesn’t want to be here, we don’t want him here.

But then he teamed up with Vlade, Peja and Jason Williams to give the team a new, more exciting style. Instantly, they were appearing on magazine covers and highlight reels–and not for the wrong reasons. He was one of the best players to ever play his position. He came to town and won us over with a million dollar smile and a blue-chip swagger.

All of that is in the past now though. Now, C-Webb is back on the East coast, leaving all of us wannabe analysts to figure out which team got the better of the other. For this, I defer to two writers who have more talent in their little fingers than I could ever hope to have in my entire body.

First, ESPN Page 2 columnist, Eric Neel: 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neel/050304&num=3

And ESPN Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons put it best just after the trade:

“Watching Webber in person against the Clippers last month, I couldn’t believe how he was dragging that bum leg around — it was actually sad to watch. No lift, no explosiveness, nothing. I thought it looked like he had a giant fork in his back. And then he kept getting to the line and grabbing rebounds, and he made a couple of threes, and then he took over the game down the stretch. He ended up with a 23-14-6. On one leg.  Basically, because of his knee problems, he’s turned into That Annoying Guy from pickup hoops–the guy with the ugly game and the giant knee brace, the one who doesn’t seem even remotely threatening, the one who looks laughably bad at least five or six times over the course of an hour, and somehow, he ends up killing you in the end. That’s Chris Webber. ”

In the end, I suppose I fall in line with a lot of people on this subject. I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but Chris had taken the team as far as he could and it was time for a change.

I happen to believe that the renaissance of the Kings began with Mitch Richmond and not Webber, but where Richmond took from laughingstock to playoff contender, Webber took them from playoff contender to championship contender. It’s something I never thought I’d see as a Kings fan. When we were drafting Joe Kleine and Duane Causewell and Pervis Ellison, I never expected to one day be one the NBA’s elite. As someone who bled the old red, white, and blue of the 80’s and 90’s and bleeds the purple and black of today, that is something I will always be grateful for.

Best of luck in Philly, C-Webb. If you do for that team half of what you did for the Kings, they’ll be lucky to have you.