You know Chris Webber said we didn't try hard enough to get him,etc.....did we hear him say that? was it in an interview? where'd it come from? was it hearsay? (I'm tryin' to win a bet)
He said it in an interview. He claims Francis told him that the Rockets thought Webber was "too cocky." I find his comments interesting because sports reports and rumors during the 2001 draft week were that Webber wasn't seriously considering the Rockets and that the Rockets got the feeling Webber wasn't really intersted in them anyway based on their interactions with him. The Pistons said the same thing about Webber when asked about why they also stopped pursuing Webber.
Let him whine. He just tried to give himself the upper hand by saying brash remarks to belittle our organization.
Webber is a choker. Disappeared in 2nd half of game 7, except with the overtime jumpshot he actually made. His post game is below average for someone his size. The Rockets made the right move on this one.
resigning moT and mooch, trading anderson for rice and dream for two draft picks was not the right move. how many of us would trade moT, mooch, rice, and a future #1 for webber right now? and instead of trading 3 picks for griff we use them on jefferson, haywood, and tinsley.
As a cornerstone, Webber is a bust. Bibby and maybe even Divac were the leaders of the team. Being third best is pretty weak for the max-pay franchise player. However, that being said, and to answer Smoothie, yea I'd do your trade to get him. But I would not trade Moochie, TMo, Rice and a future number one for Olajuan and Anderson, which is what we actuall gave up to get that. We never really had a chance at Webber. Don't blame management because Webber wanted the cash and Sacramento was willing to overpay.
At the time, I felt that we should have just let Anderson and Norris walk. They both wanted way too much. And, right now, we could have been in a position, after letting Williams, Collier, Brown, Langhi and Willis go to sign Lewis outright. Of course, if any of this Brand/Odom/Battier/Swift/Butler stuff is for real, then I guess it all turned out for the best... Although, being able to sign Lewis, drafting Ming at #1, taking Stoudamire at #15, Sampson at #23 (or later) and Dixon at #38, this fall we'd have: Ming/Cato/Sampson Griffin/Thomas/Stoudamire Lewis/Taylor/TMo Mobely/Torres Francis/Dixon
Once again Rudy and CD were right!!! Yeah, I certainly wouldn't want a 25/10/4 guy who can play from the low post. That would just suck! You know, he might choke in one game out of sixteen postseason games (choking being 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists), so we definitely don't want that. We only want players who will play perfectly in every game. As for his comments, from Clutch's link, here's all I see: Quote #1: <I>"I would love to play with Tim Duncan or Steve Francis or those guys, but truthfully none of those teams are better than ours, I just feel." </I> How is that blasting the Rockets? Hello, Sacramento was one of the best teams in the NBA ... the Rockets? Well, we got the #1 draft pick. Quote #2: <I>"Steve Francis told me they thought I was cocky, and I'm going to try to kill them every year for that. Steve and Cuttino Mobley told me they thought that I didn't want to go there, that I was cocky and didn't want to play there. But I really was interested. I don't know how interested, but I know that's the feeling the team had." </I> He sounds more disappointed than anything else.
While we are monday-morning quarterbacking, would we have the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft if we had signed Webber and won 40 games this year? The lucky bounce has mooted the terrible summer we had last year.
