http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3311954 Webber, battling chronic knee problems, to call it a career Time is apparently up on Chris Webber's basketball career. Sources close to Webber told ESPN.com on Tuesday that the 35-year-old has decided to retire from the game and end his comeback with the Golden State Warriors after more problems with a surgically repaired left knee that has plagued him for the past half-decade. Webber is expected to formally announce his plans Wednesday, sources said, less than two months after rejoining the franchise that unleashed him on the NBA as the first overall pick in the 1993 draft and the face most synonymous with Michigan's famed Fab Five team. Sources said that Webber, unable to play since March 2 because of the latest complications with his knee, decided in the past week to end his pro career after 15 seasons, having struggled with his mobility for the past five of those seasons since a serious tear in the 2003 playoffs that required microfracture surgery. Webber sat out the first four months of this season and flirted with a return to the Detroit Pistons before signing with Golden State on Jan. 29, hoping for one last run at the championship that repeatedly eluded him and hoping as well for a fairy-tale reunion with the coach under whom he won NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 1993-94. But his seemingly unlikely reunion with Warriors coach Don Nelson after the collapse of their first marriage led to Webber's trade to Washington within six months of his rookie award ended faster than anyone imagined after Nelson pushed harder than anyone in Oakland to bring Webber back. Webber appeared in a mere nine games with the Warriors this time, averaging just 3.9 points and 3.6 rebounds in 14.0 minutes as Golden State went 6-3 in those games. He played only once more after sustaining his most recent health setback in a Feb. 29 win over Philadelphia and found the knee slow to rehabilitate after such a long layoff to start the season. Asked Monday about a timetable for Webber's return after almost a month out of the lineup, Nelson admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle: "It'd be pretty hard at this point." It was Nelson, back in January, who scoffed loudest at the widespread skepticism regarding Webber's ability to keep up with Golden State's run-and-gunners. Nelson insisted that the Warriors needed Webber's passing from the high post and ability to sink mid-range jumpers to get them unstuck when their half-court offense bogged down or when their 3-pointers weren't dropping. "I'm afraid if we don't get him here [that] our team is not strong enough to be a playoff team," Nelson said at the time. "That's my biggest fear. I think if he comes [that] it can benefit our team, it can benefit his and my relationship [and] it can benefit players on this team. I think he has a chance to make some of our players better and make our team better. Really, that's all that's important. I'll get along with anybody who can help our team." Nelson also dismissed the idea that he would struggle to coach Webber again, insisting that he and Webber had reconciled years ago, starting when he chose Webber to replace the injured Shaquille O'Neal -- over Dirk Nowitzki from Nelson's Mavericks -- as the West's starting center for the 2002 All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
Never thought it would work out. With alpha dogs like BD and SJax, there was no room for Webber's style of play or personality on the Warriors. Even the few times he actually played decently, you could tell he didn't fit in and never would.
I really loved his passing,never saw any PF do that better than him, I don't think he is a HOF player but I respect your opinion.
He's going to be a borderline HOF. Its too bad he couldn't keep track of timeouts or else he could've won an NCAA championship or sink a few more free throws and he might've gone to the NBA Finals. Webber always seemed like one of those guys who was just on the very edge of greatness.
Nice little article summing up CWebb's career: Webber never won when it mattered most Link By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports 56 minutes ago Chris Webber stared into the camera and grinned, and that’s what we’ll remember about him. That 10,000-watt, straight-to-Madison Avenue smile. Give Chris Webber that. He could always smile. On the court or the courthouse steps, he’d flash his whites, arch his eyebrows and leave you feeling that everything was going to turn out just fine. Except, of course, it usually didn’t. Someone, they say, has to lose, and most of the time it seemed to be Chris Webber. As part of Michigan’s famed Fab Five, Webber helped take the Wolverines to back-to-back NCAA championship games, but won neither. He weathered that hard-luck Game 7 loss with the Sacramento Kings in the 2002 Western Conference finals. Later that year, he pled guilty to lying to a grand jury about whether he received cash from a Michigan booster. Just last season, Webber again seemed on the brink of reaching the NBA Finals until his hometown Detroit Pistons blew a 2-0 series lead against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. So when Webber called an end to his 15 seasons in the NBA Wednesday, he smiled, thanked his former coaches and teammates, and admitted that, yes, there are a lot of things he wishes he had done better. But he also seemed at peace with himself. “I do feel,” he said, “I did all I can do.” Perhaps he’s right. Maybe this was all he was meant to do. If statistics told the complete story, Springfield would be readying for his arrival in five years. Only six players in NBA history averaged 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists for their careers, and Webber was one of them. He also helped transform the Kings’ listless franchise into a playoff contender. But Webber always seemed to tease us with the promise of so much more. He had some of the softest hands in the game. Few big men ever developed into better passers. He saw the court so well that even when microfracture surgery on his left knee robbed him of his athleticism, the Philadelphia 76ers gambled he could be nearly as effective ground-bound. Webber started for the Pistons in the Eastern finals last season, and Don Nelson, who quickly tired of Webber during his rookie season, brought him back to Golden State in late January for a low-risk reunion. Even as Webber continued to drag his left leg up and down the court, everyone still wanted to try to squeeze those last 12 ounces of untapped potential out of him. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was on Nelson’s staff in Golden State, and was well aware of the headaches Webber had caused his boss. Yet, he, too, made his own call to Webber in the summer of 2001. David Robinson was in his free-agent year and had resisted the team’s initial lowball offer, so the Spurs inquired if Webber would have any interest in joining them. They were told yes by Webber’s representatives, but could never get him to actually take their call. Webber later said he wanted to stay in Sacramento all along and that he knew Popovich well enough to fear his persuasive powers. He also said Tim Duncan had given him some clichéd advice the previous summer when he was going through his own free-agent courtship with Orlando: The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. The Kings, to their credit, offered to cut Webber’s grass. Joe and Gavin Maloof, who owned the team, erected a billboard on the highway to Webber’s house that read: “Chris: Joe will mow your lawn if you stay. Gavin.” Webber stayed, but there was always the feeling he never really found the grass all that green. In an infamous ESPN The Magazine interview that previous season, he said he was “bored to death” of living in Sacramento and complained about his teammates’ “softness.” “I want to play with guys who really can’t stand losing,” Webber told the magazine. “I mean, guys who’d rather die than lose. Guys who will sit in their cars after we lose and just wonder what we could have done better. Our team isn’t always like that.” No it wasn’t, but Webber needed to take a long look in the mirror. For it was he who never delivered when it mattered most, and that’s why it’s easier to recall what he didn’t do in his career than what he did. Webber didn’t remember the Wolverines were out of timeouts. He didn’t block Robert Horry’s fateful three-pointer in Game 4 of those 2002 conference finals, missing it by just a fingertip. He didn’t tell the truth. Through it all, Webber could always grin and make you think better days were ahead. He did so again Wednesday. Sitting at the podium by himself, he struggled to come up with a single moment from his career that he treasured the most. “Most memories are just being happy,” he said, “talking a little bit of junk, smiling and making faces and all that stuff.” A chair in TNT’s studio awaits him on Thursday, and it should fit well. Chris Webber always talked a good game. He always looked good in front of the camera.
chris webber has been on my favorite player list since he was in college. talent-wise, i will put him on the all-time best list. fun to watch, too. injury really ruins everything. he under-achieved, also way under-rated imo. talent-wise he's better than the ones of same era (malone, td, kg, dirk etc.)
Further, I'd say he has been great for 6-7 years. For a 3.5 year period he has been simple phenomenal--probably the best team player for that period and the most impactfull PG I have seen outside of Magic Johnson (tough call with Isiah vs Nash at their peaks). Of course I think Paul just may have passed him (will reserve some judgement for the playoffs), but Paul right now should be line for an MVP. And Webber is a Hall of Famer too. College is considered too. Webber was a great, great player who happened to be overshadowed by being sandwiched between two top 15 of all time players in Shaq and Duncan.
