Chris Webber Spotting

Submitted by ypsituckyboy on

Just sat down at the overpriced airport bar in PHX. None other than Chris Webber happens to be sitting a seat away from me. The lady in between us started gabbing, clearly having no idea who he was, and ruining my chance to shoot the sh*t with one of my favorite players of all time. I was also contemplating asking him to get Amir Williams to sign on with Beilein, but wasn't sure how high that would rise on the awkward meter.

To the point, he told clueless lady that he had just finished speaking to high school athletes about believing in themselves and making good choices. They got to talking about how to help underprivileged kids, and I was really impressed at how passionate he was about the subject. You could tell he wasn't just making small talk. He really believed what he was saying. It made me think about how tough his childhood must've been, and how hurtful a lot of the flack he's taken over he years must be. The guy clearly has a good heart, but just made a few bad choices as a kid. It was the greedy/abusive/conniving adults around him that should've been looked down upon, not some underprivileged kid who was put in a tough position.

More broadly, it made me realize the whole system (NCAA/Athletic Departments/Boosters) is chocked full of self-interested adults and somehow immature teenagers end up taking a lot of the blame. It's just sickening.

Shalom Lansky

August 13th, 2010 at 4:49 PM ^

Did anyone read the header and think: gross? No, not the Chris Webber part, those of you with girlfriends or wives know what I mean.  I'm so glad this post was not about what I thought it was going to be about.

4godkingandwol…

August 13th, 2010 at 11:52 PM ^

... I have nothing but contempt for Chris Webber. 

When I was 13 I went to the UM scrimmage held at DCDS that UM held there just for CW's recruitment (like 1990-'91ish).  I'm waiting in the concession line at halftime and this big dude just pushes me out of the way and cuts in front of me.  I later find out the asshole is CW. 

Fuck that weasel, he caused much more harm than good (even ignoring the aforementioned incident.)

Fall of the Ho…

August 13th, 2010 at 5:14 PM ^

His dad was around, and had a decent paying job at GM if recall correctly.  While I fully agree with CWebb's point about the U getting rich off of the Fab 5's image, and the players themselves not getting a cut, I don't think that his childhood was particularly rough.  Compare his with Juwan's (raised by his gma) or Jalen's, for example.

Kennyvr1

August 13th, 2010 at 5:47 PM ^

None of us come from the same place. Even if we have the same color skin, grow up in the same neighborhood, practice the same religion, etc...we all see and experience the world differently...we all make mistakes on a daily basis some are well seen and hurt more than others...we should always be seeking to forgive others as we are seeking for forgiveness ourselves...one side needs to reach out to the other whether it's U of M or CWebb...The Fab Five aka 5times revolutionized the game and will live in my heart forever, either way no one can truly take away what they did in there time there (say what you want they never won a championship) but they were real and they always rep the greatest university ever then and now...

mgorichrod

August 13th, 2010 at 7:36 PM ^

Love Chris Webber but you can't say he "had a tough childhood."  He had two very supportive parents and attended Detroit Country Day for high school.  Juwuan Howard was dirt poor.  His grandmother, the biggest role model in his life, passed away the day he signed with U of M.  Howard had it tough, not Webber.

bacon1431

August 13th, 2010 at 8:43 PM ^

I remember reading a story about how Jalen and Juwan were walking around campus when they were students and a car backfired, and both of them hit the ground cuz they thought it was a drive-by shooting. Not something C-Webb could have related to a bunch. But it's good to hear he is involved with youth in his home state. I know Jalen is really involved in philanthropic efforts. They may have accepted money from a booster, but they've given more than enough back to the community.

Srock

August 13th, 2010 at 9:14 PM ^

If Webber is giving back to the community, then how about he brings back some Banners!! Where are the banners? 1992 and 1993 FInal Four, The First Every Big Ten Tournament Championship.

Mongoose

August 14th, 2010 at 12:52 AM ^

Forgive me, for though I've been attending Michigan basketball games since around 2001, I have no memory of Michigan being anything but awful at basketball (not old enough to actually remember the Fab Five; I remember Traylor, but had no concept of what it meant at the time-he was just a large man). It's always seemed to me, though, that Webber gets a lot of crap for bringing so much trouble to the Michigan program. As I said, I was not following as closely as some of you, but wasn't the Fab Five a pretty big influence on basketball (and still is today, although 16-year-olds certainly aren't basing their decisions on anything that happened in the several years before they were born)? It always seemed to me that, say, Brian Ellerbe had a far bigger effect on the Michigan program kind of falling by the wayside. Or Fisher, or Amaker. Why Webber? Unlike those coaches, he had a pretty huge positive effect, as well. And, when Michigan was finally punished, they probably missed. . .what, one NIT? In what way did he really destroy the program, rather than just inconvenience it about ten years later? Not that I think he should've taken money, especially given that he certainly wasn't destitute or anything. But, man, Amaker took a lot more money, and he did a whole lot less for Michigan basketball. Thoughts?

M-Wolverine

August 14th, 2010 at 1:17 AM ^

But a little history...beyond bring down the program, changing coaches, and leaving it hanging over our head for years for it to all play out, it was the hypocrisy that got to a lot of people.  Because people DID feel bad for him, as he went on Nightline, saying how much it pissed him off, to see his jersey for sale, while he couldn't afford to buy a burger to take a girl out on a date.  Which created a lot of sympathy....if you ignored the fact that his parents weren't really poor.  But came off as even more ridiculous when you find out that at the same time he was claiming poverty, he was taking over $100k. And never apologized...heck, never even admitted he did anything wrong.  It was the arrogance and denial that still has people miffed. If he had manned up, said, hey, I was a kid, thought I deserved it, but maybe wasn't the wisest decision, I'm sorry....it'd all be done right now.

Those who claim bad coaching hires kept us wallowing through your lifetime are right. It should STILL be tanking the program like it is. (I mean, I'm guessing if Martin had been a bit more proactive, and landed Pitino rather than Amaker, we wouldn't still be talking about it). But he was one of the characters involved.  And to date, none of them have really apologized.  And no one feels sorry for Steve Fisher being persona non grata here, either.

Mongoose

August 14th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^

That is actually quite a good explanation, and I can totally understand the problems people have with him now. Really a shame what happened.

You wouldn't honestly rather have Pitino right now, though? I'd gladly take Courtney Sims missing that dunk and all the pain it represented over what Pitino's going through right now. Yeesh.

M-Wolverine

August 15th, 2010 at 4:02 PM ^

He's taken the 2nd most prominent program in his state to the Final Four, and two more Elite Eights (once as a #1 seed). I might have found a way to enjoy that over what we've had....

I mean, I'd rather not have the scandal, and win.  But so far it seems to be one or the other.

jmblue

August 14th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^

The missed opportunity wasn't so much in 2001 as 1997.  In '97 our program was strong and had the momentum to overcome the NCAA sanctions (which weren't even that significant) with the right coaching hire.  Unfortunately, we made one of the worst hires ever - promoting our #3 assistant, a man just brought in with no local recruiting ties, a man who was just fired from tiny Loyola of Maryland.  The Ellerbe hire alienated everyone: the two other assistants (Brian Dutcher and Scott Trost) were justifiably angry at being passed over, the players didn't know who he was and didn't warm to him, and recruits found him aloof.  We could not have made a worse hire. 

Firing Fisher was justifiable.  But that should have been it.  The assistants were never implicated in the scandal and one of them deserved the job.  If Goss was truly hell-bent on hiring a complete outsider, he should have at least had the common sense to see that Ellerbe had just failed miserably at a tiny school and so wasn't the answer.  The hiring of Ellerbe turned what was basically a bee sting into an amputation.  By the time Pitino came available, in 2001, the program was already in ruins.  This would not have happened had we made the right decision in 1997.  (Even Amaker would have probably done okay if we'd given him the job in '97, when the program still had national visibility.  He just wasn't the guy to rebuild from scratch.)       

M-Wolverine

August 15th, 2010 at 4:11 PM ^

And think I alluded to that a little.  The problem was, long time assistants WERE going to have guilt by association. (And as people love to point out with Lloyd's assistants...it's not like Dutcher lit it up anywhere else, either). And the program fell into the same trap as before, but on a more minor level...we won the Big Ten Tournament, and it made them think this guy could coach.

The question is, back in 1997...who would you have hired? I mean, the names fired out there before the Tournament was BS like Bobby Knight (who may have come later, but wasn't coming then). I'm not sure there were any sure fire candidates.  And Tom Goss was too much of an idiot to "find the gem" out there.

I bring up Pitino, because at that point, he was one of the few names with instant credibility that could turn around the disaster. He would have had the name recognition and track record to instantly stand up against Izzo, and match him on the recruiting trail. And would have been a good counterpoint to Izzo's gritty down home style, with his slick coolness. Louisville wasn't in much better shape than Michigan, and he brought them back. The problem he has now is that he's instate with not one of the best programs now, but of all time. He wouldn't have that weight against him here, with MSU. Martin wanted to wait till the season was done to fire Ellberbe, didn't contact Rick early enough, before Louisville could woo his wife back to the state (Which was a disaster even then, because all her "Friends" she thought she'd readopt were U-K people, and not too keen on them at Louisville....no more what happened later), and then was left with listening to Dick Vitale on who to hire. 

The way to get back in basketball is to recruit.  And when your program has stunk, you need someone who can do it on THEIR name, rather than yours.  And we haven't had that. But we could have.